New answers tagged energy-efficiency
0
votes
Can we add treadmill-like structures over the airplane surfaces to reduce friction, decrease drag and producing energy?
Treadmill-like belts (with or without little "shovels") are problematic as a design. Part of it is weight, as rghome explained. Another problem is that the belt must return somehow. For a ...
6
votes
Can we add treadmill-like structures over the airplane surfaces to reduce friction, decrease drag and producing energy?
Let's be honest here...
From an engineering point of view, this is totally impractical and could never work with anything like current technology.
Consider that the surface of an aircraft is not a ...
- 161
1
vote
Can we add treadmill-like structures over the airplane surfaces to reduce friction, decrease drag and producing energy?
Unless the treadmills are independently powered, which they aren't according to your description, then they will only move if there is friction with the airflow to make them move. If we pretend there ...
- 11
9
votes
Can we add treadmill-like structures over the airplane surfaces to reduce friction, decrease drag and producing energy?
Can you reduce friction by making a surface frictionless? Yes.
Will that reduce drag? Most of the drag comes from lift. Without lift, the airplane falls out of the sky. Most of the rest of the drag ...
- 633
5
votes
Can we add treadmill-like structures over the airplane surfaces to reduce friction, decrease drag and producing energy?
Air on a wing or aileron or any airfoil does not slide on the surface of these, a very thin layer of air (boundary layer's contact surface) sticks to the surface and moves at the same speed as the ...
- 22.1k
19
votes
Can we add treadmill-like structures over the airplane surfaces to reduce friction, decrease drag and producing energy?
You can't reduce friction with machines.
The nature of machines is that everything you do adds inefficiency. A moveable wing surface adds weight, complexity, and additional losses. Even if you did it ...
- 6,544
Top 50 recent answers are included