Formula 1 Car Downforce 2

[cmato]

I am currently trying to carry out a physics project and I have chosen "aerodynamics relating to a formula 1 car" (or any racing car) and in particular am keen to research downforce aspects. I was wondering if anyone new of any useful experiments that could be carried out for my research. Any help is much appreciated. I am keen to carry out the project in the next couple of weeks so quick responses would be particularly useful.

 

[FVD]

next month I am going to do a research about the downforce effect on racing car. The research is about take some experiments on wind tunnel using a model of racing car (1:18 model). I will analyze the factors that can increase the downforce. They can be the angle of attack of rear wing, decreasing of ground clearance, and so on. I hope we can keep in touch so we can help each other in this research

 

[butelja]

For a good overview of what's been used in the past, check out Racecar Engineering magazine. Certainly wing design is an obvious area, but diffuser (tunnel) design and analysis may be another good area to research. My thinking is that if you are doing CFD, the diffuser may be easier to model.

 

I also am doing a physics project on the aerodynamics of a sports car and i too would like some information or some wed addresses which i can try to find out some information from.

 

[sanjiv]

Hi,
I recently did my practical training at the National Aerospace Laboratories,
India. I am currently a senior undergraduate student of aerospace engineering
at the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay. So let me come to the topic.
Quite a few of you seem to doing something on sports cars and downforce on
sports cars. A good thing to study would be the effect of what are gurney
flaps. Gurney flaps are very slender flaps of thickness typically 2-5% of the
chord [for a wing]. It is placed at the trailing edge at right angles to the
chord line., deflected downward. What it does is basically increase the camber,
thereby providing enormous lift augmentation of about 40-50% in the case of 5%
gurney flap. The main disadvantage of these small devices is that they also
increase the drag, more severely in the case of 4-5% gurney flaps. The exact
mechanism behind the lift augmentation has still not been modelled
mathematically and is still the subject of much research. But a sports car is
not required to fly. What it needs is exactly the opposite, negative lift or
downforce. This can be got by using a gurney flap deflected upward.
Interestingly, this was how it was discovered. The credit goes to the famous
Dan Gurney who is noted in the racing circles.


sanjiv

 

[moygr1]

Guys, try a 4412 or 4415 inverted airfoil. You could also try a inverted 23012 for a race car im assuming that you may wish to have a lot of "negative lift" to push the rear of the car down for better traction and handling correct?

I'm not a race car person in the least bit, and my designs are for helicopter rotor heads etc. so i have almost no knowledge of race cars or the difference between formulas etc. But placement may be a key factor as well.


If you want something to help with traction? then if it were me, id go the opposite route and look for one that had good thickness, say 12%, and a high moment coefficient and use that moment to apply the inverted pressures over the rear axles, or even over the front, almost no one does this since its the opposite in what youre taught.


So give a look at the 4412, 4415, 6415 airfoils. also remember that you can merge some of these together to create a hybrid airfoil if need be. I think the 6415 airfoil should work for what you want.

 

[moygr1]

Also, one thing that should have mention made to is this:

In terms of your physics project, just what are the parameters that you're suppose to identify?