Formula One In School - Adroit Project

Please discuss here all your remarks and pose your questions about all racing series, except Formula One. Both technical and other questions about GP2, Touring cars, IRL, LMS, ...
Izzy410
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Joined: 19 Oct 2010, 17:00

Formula One In School - Adroit Project

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Hello.

Im finding Ideas and Advice :)

---Intro (skip it if you want :D )------
We are team Adroit. Currently we have just passed on our National Finals and managed to grab second. due to strong lobbying :) We managed to join worlds even without being a champion. Of course the catch is we have to take the COST ALL TO OURSELVES. More than 70 000 dollars. <-- quite big for high schoolers :D

Anyhow. I've seen the thread on the F1 Technical forums. I've researched wherever i could. Google being my friend :) Basizeland projects and Pudin's aswell as bretts (i think). All managed to bring good information.

Of course i hope this thread doesnt die. I am NOT looking for people to design my car but to give helpful input.

We created a car for the National Finals. which wasnt very good -.-' mind i tell you we didnt pass for Top 16 cars but our marketing and branding did the saving and managed to get us to 2nd Overall.

The car wasnt that terribly bad, it was just err. not that good compared to others.
It clocked 1.186 seconds when others did 1.100 seconds.

And we only had THREE weeks. because of some complication in administration from the organizers.

---Business part (the details)---

Okay so the world car as attached is quite promising. i need some help on the side pod issue. the blue area (vacuuming) is quite bad and is there someway to reduce it without adding too much body parts (national's car weight was 5 grammes over the minimum).

Image

Image

Image

another is that, can someone tell me if this is legal. this is a clause in the rule book.

2d. Total car width, including wheels
Min: 60mm / Max: 85mm
(Measured between outside edges of the
widest feature of the car assembly).

So if i made the body of the car at say 40 mm BUT i made the axle protrude sufficiently to comply with the minimum 60 mm rule, would it count?

As you know it doesnt specify what CAR ASSEMBLY means. in my interpretation it means everything ON and ATTACHED AND IN THE CAR. Axle included :D

devious idea :D
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Team Adroit
SMK Aminuddin Baki
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Question is, Are YOU?

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flynfrog
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Re: Formula One In School - Adroit Project

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You could try to give them an airfoil shape instead of trying to fair the wheels. Not sure if it will work or not. Also your co2 chamber could use some work a blunt nose would be better than the point.

As far as the rule loop hole goes I agree with you but im not in charge of judging your cars. On my co2 car when it got narrow it tended to flip over.

Izzy410
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Re: Formula One In School - Adroit Project

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oh okay. thanks.

so experiment with a blunt nose and err, what did you mean with the airfoil shape? does it change the front nose to another shape or the sidepod itself?
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Izzy410
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Re: Formula One In School - Adroit Project

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Okay so i've redesigned the nose. Thank you for that comment. it showed a drop in Cd :) still experimenting on the side pod shape. i have a new one about to be tested. it'll take some time before the CFD data is ready.

Image

Image

Image
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Arunas
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Re: Formula One In School - Adroit Project

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Have any knowledge about regulations - is position of this Co container specified regarding rear wheels? If not, I suggest moving it backwards (this may require lenthening wheelbase and substantialy overall lengh) then interference between rear wheels and container can be reduced significantly. Hope, you understand my English.

Izzy410
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Re: Formula One In School - Adroit Project

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Thank you, i do understand the advice. there is no rules on wheelbase and position of CO2 container only TOTAL car length which max out at 210 mm.

I'll re-do another model on that advice but my concern is total overall weight. on national's we found it the hard way. my main racing car was 61 grams. and the minimum was 55. so in this car we make the car absolutely small as possible but your advice seems to be a point to look at.

maybe i'll move the wheelbase forward. but that will mess the CG now wouldnt it ?
-.-'

Hmm.. i'll take a look at the problem and find a solution but thanks.

I finally got hold of STAR-CCM+ :D im running simulation in it because its abit more accurate on the data than the Pheonics VWT is. Dont ask how i got the software.

BTW Flynfrog what is your take if i lower the rear wing into the vacuuming area behind the rear wheels? would it make the rear wing 'disappear'?
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Jersey Tom
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Re: Formula One In School - Adroit Project

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Izzy410 wrote:maybe i'll move the wheelbase forward. but that will mess the CG now wouldnt it ?
Why does the CG matter on this project?
I finally got hold of STAR-CCM+ :D im running simulation in it because its abit more accurate on the data than the Pheonics VWT is
More accurate? Says who? You could have the most expensive, fancy CFD software in the world... it means nothing when put in perspective of the end user. You can make pretty, colorful plots, but how do you know they aren't complete crap? How do you know what boundary conditions to set? How refined is your mesh, and how is that impacting your result? How are you taking into account the gas flow from the CO2 canister and its effect on things?

Don't mean to come across as harsh... but it sucks that competitions like this encourage blind "engineering" work - aka playing with engineering tools without knowing what's going on and assuming the answer is OK.
Last edited by Jersey Tom on 24 Nov 2010, 07:48, edited 1 time in total.
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pudin
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Re: Formula One In School - Adroit Project

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Check your front wing,it looks like its not 3mm from the track surface.
The rules stated the car parts must 3mm from the track surface.
And,about the mass,you dont have to worry about it,the finishing part does it all for you,you just have to find a really pro airbrusher that always calculate your car's mass after he sprayed a little.From the looks of your car,i think it only weight about below 30 grams after manufactured,because i've done 50 cars just like yours.
So,fairing the wheels with the sidepods is a good idea.Take a good look on basilisk world final car and also team Aixtreme Racing.From the front to the back,their sides are straight without any shape
Last edited by pudin on 24 Nov 2010, 07:41, edited 1 time in total.
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pudin
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Re: Formula One In School - Adroit Project

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Arunas wrote:Have any knowledge about regulations - is position of this Co container specified regarding rear wheels? If not, I suggest moving it backwards (this may require lenthening wheelbase and substantialy overall lengh) then interference between rear wheels and container can be reduced significantly. Hope, you understand my English.
If you place the CO2 chamber at the back,doesnt it makes the car wheelie?
And for sure it will produce more friction at you guidelines which what happened to my car.For my opinion,better move it to the front than to the back
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Izzy410
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Re: Formula One In School - Adroit Project

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Jersey Tom wrote:
Izzy410 wrote:maybe i'll move the wheelbase forward. but that will mess the CG now wouldnt it ?
Why does the CG matter on this project?
I finally got hold of STAR-CCM+ :D im running simulation in it because its abit more accurate on the data than the Pheonics VWT is
More accurate? Says who? You could have the most expensive, fancy CFD software in the world... it means nothing when put in perspective of the end user. You can make pretty, colorful plots, but how do you know they aren't complete crap? How do you know what boundary conditions to set? How refined is your mesh, and how is that impacting your result? How are you taking into account the gas flow from the CO2 canister and its effect on things?

Don't mean to come across as harsh... but it sucks that competitions like this encourage blind "engineering" work - aka playing with engineering tools without knowing what's going on and assuming the answer is OK.
Comment taken well and positive. I do understand your statement of encourage blind engineerig work but our team works with a University that helps us in making the design. of course we ask them and i do now boundary setting that although not accurate but are good enough.

When i meant MORE accurate there is a reason, the older CFD program pheonics can only max out at 100 thousand mesh because of academic license but with the newer one i can set up to whatever my computer can handle. of course it helps that the university we work with also uses STAR CCM+ so their experience and knowledge put us on the literate side. I do my homework but of course i still am in the blind side.

But your comment is well taken. I do understand your concern


About the CG it does matter. if i move the wheelbase forward the CG will be (in relative) moved back thus more tendency to wheelie. which is very bad for the objective.
pudin wrote:Check your front wing,it looks like its not 3mm from the track surface.
The rules stated the car parts must 3mm from the track surface.
And,about the mass,you dont have to worry about it,the finishing part does it all for you,you just have to find a really pro airbrusher that always calculate your car's mass after he sprayed a little.From the looks of your car,i think it only weight about below 30 grams after manufactured,because i've done 50 cars just like yours.
So,fairing the wheels with the sidepods is a good idea.Take a good look on basilisk world final car and also team Aixtreme Racing.From the front to the back,their sides are straight without any shape
Thanks for the comment. The front wing if you read properly from the rule book can be below 3mm. we did that in national and we passed the regulation check. the part that has to be 3mm from the track surface is the part IN BETWEEN the front and rear axle as quoted here

2b. Body to track distance
Min: 3mm / Max: 15mm
(Excluding tether line guides and aerofoils, but
including side pods and the tether line slot.
Measured from the track surface to the
underside of the car body between the axles
and side pod extremities.
I.e. Within the underside area bounded by the
axles and side pod extremities
, no point can be
lower than 3mm from track surface or higher
than 15mm from track surface)

As for the weight issue take a look at basilisk thread. they talked about an increment of 1 gram is equal to approx. 0.05 second on the track. that is alot. so keeping the mass down is crucial. as for the finish we do have a good airbrush service. the last time we did our national the clear coat was thinner to reduce weight. since the car was heavy. this car would be only 18 grammes when cut. but we are trying to get less dense wood. If you check the mass before cutting some block weigh as high as 140 grammes while another weigh only 88 grammes. so we can take the lowest density balsa.

The fairing is understood. we just run a test. it shows a lower Cd. but im rerunning it at a higher iteration to find out for real.

Thank you for the comment. now only if STAR CCM would kindly not use up all the PCs memory -.-
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We're Just Fast
Question is, Are YOU?

pudin
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Re: Formula One In School - Adroit Project

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Could you post more picture from different angle from your car and zoom in a little,i cant imagine how the bottom part looks like.
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Izzy410
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Joined: 19 Oct 2010, 17:00

Re: Formula One In School - Adroit Project

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Okay so the fairing is added. the data shows improvement in vacuum reduction and better wake profile in the Y axis.

But the catch is a slight increase in Cd. apparently the surface friction is the culprit perhaps. but i cant be certain. the accuracy of the software makes the reading negligible. a rise of 0.002 on Cd. any advice on this?

Anyhow a few profile picture.

Image
Image

as for the underside

Image
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pudin
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Re: Formula One In School - Adroit Project

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Try design your front part like this and try to raise the sidepods a little higher.I can see there still blue colour at the sidepods.Im working on for my junior's car for next year,the main body just like this and its drag reading quite low.Hope this helps.
Image
Image
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Izzy410
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Joined: 19 Oct 2010, 17:00

Re: Formula One In School - Adroit Project

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I understand the advice. but im trying to make the body length as short as possible. in this case the car is 172 mm long. Very short. and i am trying to make longer back ends than front because i've experimented with your design which gives me high Cd. the main body that i made is to comply with every rule there are about body heights.

as for the height of the pod that's the mid sized height. i've made higher design and lower and this seems to get the middle end of the Cd.
Technical Engineer
Team Adroit
SMK Aminuddin Baki
We're Just Fast
Question is, Are YOU?

Jersey Tom
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Joined: 29 May 2006, 20:49
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Re: Formula One In School - Adroit Project

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Not following how the cg change would make the car wheelie given that the tires aren't driving the thing
Grip is a four letter word. All opinions are my own and not those of current or previous employers.