not sure the best way to pose this question so ill just tell you what im trying to calculate... i have a travel trailer i know that it only weighs about 1300 pounds max. fully loaded my truck can safely haul 6000 pounds but when i tow i can definatly feel that it isnt just towing the 1300 pounds, the trailer is very boxy and tall so the front is pretty much a flat surface just rounded a little at the top, so how do i calculate the amount of "weight" that is being added on account of wind resistance or drag. the front is about 8 feet wide by 6 feet tall and as i said pretty much flat ,may as well be a sail im towing behind me haha. it seems like it has trouble maintaining speed after about 45 miles per hour i have to keep on the gas constantly,i dont want to hurt my truck by towing too much so if someone could help me figure out how much more strain this is adding by towing at say 55.miles per hour i would really appreciate it.
Answer:
Drag force = .5Cp*rho*V^2*A
A is the cross sectional area in the direction of the velocity (should be the area normal to the velocity vector which would account for a slanted front end for example)
V is the velocity
rho is the density of air
Cp is the drag coefficient, you'd have to look up what it is for the shape.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/drag_coeffi... might provide some help here
So the dynamics equation is then
m_total * accel = sum(forces) = Driving_force +road_friction - Drag force. So the load you apply is
m_total*accel + DragForce = Driving Force (ignoring road friction) You can add that in if you have an idea of what kind of friction you have based on loading, but I would figure at 55 mph that drag is a lot more than road friction.
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