ringo wrote: ↑02 Aug 2022, 21:48
I have not investigated what they actually do.
It may not be related to vortices. I have no clue. But the team seem very confident in the effect.
A sloping surface next to another surface will create downwash (in the case of the sidepods). This air going down needs something to fill up the void, creating a transfers flow on the upper surface. You are left with two angular flows (downwash and "sidewash ") that will fold into a vortex. Its not a violent, compact, powerful but you can move a large volume of air. That you can put to great use. Its also not that sensitive to yaw.
Creating downforce is done by accellarating air below the car. But that is only useful if it accelerates relative to the air above the car. Slowing down air above the car effectively without much drag is what i suspect is the key.
Having a big vortex around the sidepods may cause more of the air over the car to downwash onto the diffuser. The trick is to smash all your dirty stuff against the back wheels and have clean powerful air on the diffuser and beam wing.
As i suggested in an earlier post, the stepped slopes on the rear of the plank area may help the air stick to the agressively sloped beam wing.