GB2486517A

GB2486517A - Rear spoiler

Info

Publication number: GB2486517A
Application number: GB1115800.3A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Seikou Fukuda; Isao Iwasawa; Yasuhiro Kaneko; Katsumi Takahashi
Original assignee: Honda Access Corp
Current assignee: Honda Access Corp
Priority date: 2010-12-13
Filing date: 2011-09-13
Publication date: 2012-06-20
Anticipated expiration: 2031-09-13
Also published as: GB2486517B; GB201115800D0; DE102011082596A1; CN102556183B; JP2012126178A; JP5248582B2; CN102556183A

Abstract

A rear spoiler 1 is provided which is capable of suppressing an increase in air resistance and applying a downforce to a vehicular rear portion during high-speed vehicle traveling. The rear spoiler 1 includes a main body 2 that is longer in a longitudinal direction than in a width direction. The main body 2 includes an air introduction opening 14 of air currents, and a wing 3 and an air outlet 17 communicating with the opening 14 at the rear. The air currents introduced from the opening 14 during traveling are blown off from the air outlet 17. Consequently, vortex flows generated at the rear is rectified, thus permitting travel resistance to be reduced. Further, the main body 2 is arranged in the vehicular lateral side and hence by rectifying the vortex flows generated by the air currents coming around the vehicular lateral side, the air resistance is restrained from increasing during high-speed traveling, permitting the travel resistance to be reduced.

Description

REAR SPOILER

The present invention relates to a rear spoiler, particularly to a rear spoiler to be mounted on an upper side of a rear portion of a vehicle.

Heretofore, as this type of a rear spoiler, one type is known which is mounted on the upper surface of a rear portion of a tailgate to allow a downforce to act thereon by this rear spoiler to thereby increase the grip force of a rear wheel at the time of high-speed traveling, as disclosed in e.g., Japanese unexamined utility model application publication No. H04-013485.

Further, another type is known which relates to a rear vehicular structure of a vehicle having a rear spoiler mounted therewith, including a wing extending in a vehicular width direction and a leg for supporting the wing on a rear upper surface of a tailgate equipped with a face plate and a rear wall plate extending downwards from its own rear end, wherein said rear vehicular structure is structured such that there is provided, in the leg of the rear spoiler, a protruding reinforcing section for reinforcing the rear wall plate of the tailgate; the rear spoiler is formed with an opening for introducing air currents caused during vehicle traveling; the reinforcing section is formed with an air outlet for the air currents, and hence the rear face of the rear wall plate of the tailgate is reinforced by the reinforcing section provided in the leg of the rear spoiler in a protruding mannçr, while no vortex flows generated in the rear portion of the vehicle arc allowed to appear by the blowoff wind from the air outlet formed in the reinforcing portion, as disclosed in e.g., Japanese unexamined patent application publication No. H05-33 8562.

The rear spoiler described above allows a downforce to act on the rear portion of a vehicle, contributing to high-speed stability. In order to improve fuel consumption, however, air resistance is required to he reduced. Making the rear spoiler streamlined to meet this requirement will cause the downforce contributing to the high-speed stability to be prone to decrease, posing the problem of reducing the stability in high-speed vehicle traveling.

Further, there exists a conventional art in which a wing-type rear spoiler having a vehicular width dimension is mounted on the rear portion of a vehicle in order to make the lift amounts of the front and rear sides of a vehicle appropriate at the time of high-speed vehicle traveling, thereby aiming at ensuring excellent traveling performance. In this case, however, the air resistance increases, leading to decreased fuel efficiency Therefore, in view of the problems described above, it is an object of the present invention to provide a rear spoiler capable of suppressing an increase in air resistance and applying a downforce to the rear portion of a vehicle.

To attain the above object in the present invention, a first aspect of the present invention is characterized in that: a rear spoiler mounted on an upper side of a rear portion of a vehicle includes a main body which is longer in a vehicular longitudinal direction than in a vehicular width direction, and in the main body there is provided an air introduction opening for introducing air currents caused during vehicle travel, and at the rear side of the main body there is provided a wing and an air outlet for the air currents which communicates

with the air introduction opening.

A second, preferred aspect of the present invention is characterized in that the main body is arranged on the lateral side of the vehicle.

A third, preferred aspect of the present invention is characterized in that the opening area of the air introduction opening of the air currents is larger than that of the air outlet of the air currents.

A fourth, preferred aspect of the present invention is characterized in that the air outlet is provided below the wing and thus the wing is allowed to generate a downforce by air currents blown off from the air outlet.

A fifth, preferred aspect of the present invention is characterized in that the air introduction opening is provided to the lateral side of the vehicle.

According to the rear spoiler in the first aspect of the present invention, vortex flows generated in the longitudinal direction of the vehicle in vehicle traveling are rectified by the blowoff of the air currents to enable travel resistance to be reduced.

Further, according to the rear spoiler in the second aspect of the present invention, the vortex flows coming around the lateral side of the vehicle are rectified to enable the travel resistance to be reduced.

Furthermore, according to the rear spoiler in the third aspect of the present invention, the differences in opening area can increase the blowoff speed of the air currents and thus the vortex flows generated at the rear portion of the vehicle is effectively rectified to enable the travel resistance to be reduced.

Moreover, according to the rear spoiler in the fourth aspect of the present invention, the blowoff speed of the air currents streaming below the wing increases to thereby generate negative pressure below the wing, enabling the downforce to be enhanced.

Further, according to the rear spoiler in the fifth aspect of the present invention, the air currents streaming along the lateral side of the vehicle can be introduced into the

air introduction opening.

Certain preferred aspects of the present invention will now be described in greater detail, by way of example only, and with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: FIG. 1 is a side view of a rear spoiler in a mounted state illustrating a first embodiment in the present invention; FIG. 2 is a plane view of the rear spoiler in the mounted state illustrating the first embodiment in the present invention; FIG. 3 is a rear view of the rear spoiler in the mounted state illustrating the first embodiment in the present invention; FIG. 4 is a perspective view of a vehicle having the rear spoiler mounted therewith, illustrating the first embodiment in the present invention; and FIG 5 is a side view of the rear spoiler viewed from a fixing surface illustrating the first embodiment in the present invention.

Hereunder is a description of a first embodiment of a rear spoiler of the present invention with reference to the accompanying drawings.

As shown in FIG ito FIG 5, the rear spoilers 1, 1 are independently provided on the right and left sides in an upper side of a rear portion of a vehicle body 101 of a self-propelled four-wheeled vehicle. The rear spoiler 1 includes integrally a main body 2 whose longitudinal length is longer than that in the vehicular width direction and a wing 3 provided in the rear portion of the main body 2. The wing 3 applies a downforce to the rear portion of the vehicle body 101 in vehicle traveling. In addition, the right and left rear spoilers 1, 1 are horizontally symmetric and are made of synthetic resin or the like.

The rear spoiler 1 is arranged in the rear roof 102 of the vehicle body 101. The main body 2 is mounted on a door side frame 103, being a comer portion on an upper surface of a rear roof 102. There is provided an oblique glass plate 104 sloping downwards to the rear portion of the vehicle between the right and left door side frames 103, 103. A substantially perpendicular rear face 106 is provided in the rear portion of the rear roof 102. Besides, the surface of the door side frame 103 slants lower from the central side in the width direction of the vehicle body 101 toward the lateral side.

In addition, in this example, a hatchback door 107 is fonned which comprises the door side frames 103, 103 whose front sections are coupled, the glass plate 104 and part of the rear face 106. The hatchback door 107 is mounted by a pivotal part 109 on the rear portion of the front roof 108 in an openable and closable manner.

The main body 2 is integrated with a main body front portion 11 and a main body rear portion 12. Besides, the main body 2 includes a fixing plane 13 for being fixed to the surface of the door side frame 103. This fixing plane 13 is provided consecutively to the main body front portion 11 and the main body rear portion 12. The main body front portion 11 is formed sharply in its front side. Then, a tubular air -4.

introduction opening 14 for introducing air currents streaming around the lateral side of the vehicle is provided in the boundary between the main body front portion 11 and the main body rear portion 12, and a tapered hole 15 getting narrower toward the rear of the vehicle is provided in the rear portion of the air introduction opening 14. Further, a longitudinal through-hole 16 is formed between the tapered hole 15 and a rear face 12K of the main body rear section 12. Then, an air outlet 17 is provided in the rear portion of the through-hole 16. Further, the opening area of the air introduction opening 14 is formed larger than that of the air outlet 17.

In this manner, the opening area of the air introduction opening 14 is formed larger than that of the through-hole 17. Therefore, thefl air currents introduced from the air introduction opening 14 are throttled in the tapered hole 15 and then can be blown off from the air outlet 17 with the current speed increased. Besides, the air currents throttled by the tapered hole 15 pass through the through-hole 16 with a given length, thereby being rectified, thus being blown off from the air outlet 17 as air currents having a directional movement.

As shown in FIG 3, the air outlet 17 is provided directly above the door side frame 103 and directly below an outside wing portion 21.

An inner surface 1 lN of the main body front portion 11 is formed into a curved and concaved surface. The air introduction opening 14 is provided behind the inner surface llN and then is made up by the inner surface llN and a forward edge l4M whose front is substantially semicircle. As shown in a plane view in FIG. 2, the forward edge 14M of the air introduction opening 14 is obliquely fonned such that its lateral side is located in front in planar view in the usage state. Further, as shown in the side view in FIG. I, the forward edge 14M of the air introduction opening 14 is obliquely formed such that its lower portion is located in front in a side view in the usage state.

Then, by forming the forward edge I 4M in this manner, the air currents passing through both sides are introduced into the air introduction opening 14. Further, as shown in FIG. 1, at least part of the air introduction opening 14 lies at a position lower than the upper surface of the rear roof 102.

As shown in the plain view in FIG. 2, an upper edge of the main body 2 is substantially linearly formed. The front sides of the right and left outsides of the main body 2 are curvedly formed and the distal ends of the right and left outsides of the main body 2 are sharply formed so as to become narrower. Further, as shown in the side view in FIG. I, a shape produced by combining the main body 2 and an outside wing portion 21 is sharply formed.

The wing 3 is made up by integrating the platy outside wing portion 21 lying in the upper portion of the air outlet 17, a platy inside wing portion 22 provided on the 5.

horizontally central portion side consecutive from the outside wing portion 21, and a wing forward edge 25 at the horizontally outside position. The leg 23 to be mounted on a side of the rear end of the glass plate 104 is arranged in the lower portion of the inside wing portion 22 and besides the leg 23 is provided substantially at the center in the right and left width direction of the inside wing portion 22. The rear side of the outside wing portion 21 is allowed to extend rearwards from the rear side 12K of the main body rear portion 12. Further, the outer edge 21F of the outside wing portion 21 protrudes laterally from the main body 2. Furthermore, as shown in FIG. 1 and FIG. 3, the main body rear portion 12 is formed with a concave portion 24 whose lateral side becomes concave from the front side of the main body rear portion 12 to the lower face of the outside wing portion 21 Then, the concave portion 24 is formed so as to become gradually deeper toward the rear of the vehicle. The platy wing forward edge 25 is provided above the concave portion 24 at the front side of the outside wing portion 21. A gradient 26 getting lower to the inside wing portion 22 is provided between the outside wing portion 21 and the inside wing portion 22.

In addition, between the inside wing portions 22, 22 of the right and left rear spoilers 1, 1, there is provided an interval not less than the one-third of the right and left width of the rear roof 102 at the positions of the inside wing portions 22, 22.

Further, as shown in FIG. 1, the through-hole 16 is obliquely formed so as to be slightly lower toward the rear portion of the vehicle body along the line of the direction of the gradient of the rear roof 102, so that the air currents are blown off to the rearward in the vicinity of the corner portions 106A, 106A of both the right and left sides.

Furthermore, as shown in FIG. 1, in the state of the rear spoiler being mounted, the upper surface of the wind 3 composed of the outside wing portion 21, the wing forward edge 25 and the inside wing portion 22 is obliquely formed so as to slightly rise toward the rear side.

Then, the rear spoiler I is equipped in the vehicle such that the fixing surface 13 is fixed to the surface of the door side frame 103 by an appropriate means and the leg 23 is fixed to the rear section of the glass plate 104 by a proper means.

Next is a description of the behavior of the rear spoiler 1. When a vehicle travels, air currents are generated along the upper surface, the lateral surface and the lower surface of the vehicle body 101. A downforee is generated by the air currents at the wing 3 in the rear portion of the vehicle. Further, the air eulTents introduced from the air introduction opening 14 are blown off from the rear air outlet 17 to the rearward and then the vortex flows generated at the rear portion of the vehicle are rectified, thereby permitting the travel resistance to be reduced. Specifically, the air currents are blown off through the both lateral sides toward rearwards of the vehicle, thus rectifying 6' the vortex flows generated in such a manner as to come around from the lateral sides of the vehicle to the rear side thereof, thus permitting the travel resistance to be reduced.

In this instance, generally, the air eun-ents passing through the upper surface of the vehicle body 101 lowers in velocity on the rear roof 102 located posterior to the highest portion of the vehicle as compared to the velocity in the region of the highest portion of the vehicle. Conversely, the air currents passing through the lateral side of the vehicle body 101 slightly changes (lowers) in velocity on the rear side of the vehicle and hence by introducing the air currents from the lateral sides of the vehicle body 101 to the air introduction opening 14, the air currents with a high rectifying effect can be blown off from the air outlet 17.

Besides, the air currents introduced from the air introduction opening 14 pass through a tubular through-hole 16 to the air outlet 17. Then, the air currents which have passed through the air outlet 17 rectify the turbulence on the rear side of the vehicle body 101 during high-speed traveling as well as the air currents which have been rectified through an outside wing portion 2lF in the wing 3, and thus the bands of the rectified air currents can be blown off ftirther away In this fashion, the rectification of the turbulence and the lift reduction effect due to the application of the downforee can ensure high-speed stability As described above, according to the present embodiment, there is provided the rear spoiler mounted on an upper side of a rear portion of the vehicle as set forth in the first aspect of the invention. The rear spoiler includes the main body 2 whose length is longer in the longitudinal direction than in the vehicular width direction, and in the main body 2 there is provided the air introduction opening 14 for introducing air currents caused during vehicle travel, and at the rear side of the main body 2 there are provided the wing 3 and the air outlet 17 which communicates with the air introduction opening 14 to pass the air currents through. Hence, the vortex flows generated in the longitudinal direction of the vehicle in vehicle traveling are rectified by the blowoff of the air currents to enable travel resistance to be reduced, Further, according to the present embodiment, the main body 2 is arranged on the lateral sides of the vehicle as set forth in the second aspect of the invention. Hence, the vortex flows generated by the air currents coming around the lateral sides of the vehicle are rectified, thereby permitting the travel resistance to be reduced.

Furthermore, according to the present embodiment, the air introduction opening 14 of the air currents has an opening area greater than that of the air outlet 17 of the air currents as set forth in the third aspect. Hence, the difference in the opening area causes the air currents to be increased in blowoff velocity and thus the vortex flows generated at the rear portion of the vehicle are effectively rectified, thus permitting the travel resistance to be reduced.

Moreover, according to the present embodiment, the air outlet 17 is provided below the wing 3 and thus the wing 3 is allowed to generate the downforee by the air currents blown off from the air outlet 17 as set forth in the fourth aspect. Hence, the blowoff velocity of the air currents streaming below the wing 3 can be increased to thereby generate negative pressure below the wing 3, thus permitting the downforee to be enhanced.

Further, according to the present embodiment, the air introduction opening 14 is provided on the lateral side of the vehicle as set forth in the fifth aspect of the invention. Hence, the air eulTents streaming along the lateral side of the vehicle can be

introduced into the air introduction opening 14.

Furthermore, according to the present embodiment, the main body 2 with the air introduction opening 14 is mounted on the door side frame, being the upside corner portion of the rear roof and therefore the air currents streaming along the lateral and upper sides of the vehicle can be introduced into the air introduction opening 14.

Moreover, the tapered hole 15 is provided between the air introduction opening 14 and the air outlet 17, and the substantially tubular through-hole 16 is provided between the tapered hole 15 and the air outlet 17, and further the through-hole 16 is formed longer than the tapered hole 15. Hence, the air eunents throttled by the tapered hole 15 pass through the through-hole 16 with a given length to thereby be rectified and finally be blown off from the air outlet 17 as air currents having a directional movement. Further, the wing forward edge 25 is provided on the lateral side of the outside wing portion 21 of the wing 3. Hence, the air currents streaming along the lateral sides of the vehicle pass through the wing forward edge 25, thereby permitting the downforce to be obtained while rectifying the air eulTents. The distance between the wings 3, 3 of the right and left rear spoilers 1, 1 is not less than one third of the width of the rear roof, thereby pennitting the travel resistance attributable to the wings 3, 3 to be reduced compared to that of the case where the distance between the wings 3, 3 is zero.

The present invention is not limited to the foregoing embodiment and various modifications are possible within the scope of the present invention. For example, the air introduction opening and the air outlet may be communicated with each other through a tapered hole, without providing the through-hole.

Claims

CLAIMS1. A rear spoiler mounted on an upper side of a rear portion of a vehicle, comprising: a main body which is longer in a vehicular longitudinal direction than in a vehicular width direction; an air introduction opening for air currents caused during vehicle traveling, said air introduction opening being provided in said main body; an air outlet for said air currents, said air outlet being in communication with said air introduction opening and provided at a rear portion of said main body; and a wing provided at a rear portion of said main body.
2. The rear spoiler according to claim I, wherein said main body is arranged on a lateral side of said vehicle.
3. The rear spoiler according to claim I or 2, wherein said air introduction opening has an opening area greater than that of said air outlet.
4. The rear spoiler according to claim 3, wherein said air outlet is provided below said wing such that said wing is allowed to generate a downforce by the air currents blown off from said air outlet.
5. The rear spoiler according to any one of claims 1 or 4, wherein said air introduction opening is provided on the lateral side of said vehicle.
6. A rear spoiler substantially as hereinhefore described with reference to FIG. 1 to FIG. 5.