Engine Cooling via Radiators

24 Aug 2004 Engine Cooling via Radiators

There has been a lot of research into water cooled engine drag, most dating from before WWII. Here are a couple of interesting links:

http://yarchive.net/mil/laminar_flow.html

http://www.airspacemag.com/ASM/Mag/Index/1996/AS/wmtm.html

http://www.airspacemag.com/asm/mag/supp/jj99/Mustang.html

Most discuss “The Meredith Effect”, which postulates that heat from the radiator, properly routed, can actually add thrust that almost completely offsets the drag of the cooling system. It seems this effect only occurs in the speed range of 300+ mph, so it won’t help me much on my RV8.

Here is a picture of the P51 Mustang Radiator Scoop/Cooling Duct I stole from this URL:

http://www.supercoolprops.com/ARTICLES/gwhite.htm

Here is a picture of a flying P51 where you can see the scoop exit open in flight:

Here is a picture with the scoop open while taxiing. It’s pretty rare to see this scoop open in any photos.

Not sure any of this information can help me, but I think it is very interesting to see that we are today trying to re-engineer stuff that seems to have been solved back in the 1940s.