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A fuel consumption simulator was developed to help students in driver's education courses identify driving practices that maximize a vehicle's fuel economy. To maintain the interest of teenage students, a computer program was developed as a first-person driving simulation and was made to resemble the video-game driving simulators that are available for recreation. To keep the costs of using the simulator reasonably low for high schools, the simulator was developed for use with Windows based computers and off-the-shelf driving controls for video games. While the simulator was created for use with off-the-shelf equipment, the simulator uses an incompressible flow model of the intake and exhaust processes with realistic transmission and torque converter models to predict fuel consumption and vehicle performance. The engine and transmission models were calibrated using manufacturer reported engine performance data.

Changes in convection coefficient caused by the changes in surface roughness characteristics along an iced NACA 0012 airfoil were investigated in the 61-cm by 61-cm (24 in. by 24 in.) Baylor Subsonic Wind Tunnel using a 91.4-cm (36-in.) long heated aerodynamic test plate and infrared thermometry. A foam insert was constructed and installed on the wind tunnel ceiling to create flow acceleration along the test plate replicating the scaled flow acceleration the along the leading 17.1% (3.6 in.) of a 53.3-cm (21-in.) NACA 0012 airfoil. Two sets of rough surface panels were constructed for the study, and each surface used the same basic random droplet pattern created using the Lagrangian droplet simulator of Tecson and McClain (2013). For the first surface, the roughness pattern was replicated with the same geometry over the plate following a smooth-to-rough transition location noted in historical literature for the case being replicated.