gilgen wrote:Just_a_fan wrote:Don't forget that the rear wing end plates are just aero parts now with little, if any, structural role. The rear wing is centrally supported these days so even if the end plate failed totallt, the only thing likely to happen is that the rear end aero becomes less effective.
I'd have been more worried if the central pillar had shown some damage from the impact, however.
The end plates DO have a structural role. . Without those, the ends of the wing would droop under air pressure, which can be quite severe. I doubt that the plates are hollow, as foam would be used so as to provide the required shape and rigidity. I still see it as a poor lay-up, or bonding problem, which shouldn't really be happening.
Another peculiarity is the way that the outer layer is bent. CF is quite rigid and brittle, and if not formed to that shape, it should have shattered. A small amount of flexibility is available, but hardly a sharp s-bend.
I think your getting something a little wrong, the mechanical properties of carbon fiber reinforced plastics, is mostly dependent on the lay-up of the carbon fiber. What you see is component failure because the component was exposed to a loading that exceded what it was designed to take, in either direction or magnatude, or both. The bottom line is, if it is strong enough to take the maximum loading under normal racing conditions, then there is no problem. No team designs end plates to be the ultimate load-bearing components, there function, as pointed out earlier, is mostly aero-dynamic. There is no point in making a component handle these kinds of ab-normal loading.
Your right, carbon fiber reinforced plastics are normally quite rigid and brittle. But that doesn't mean that it is not capable of flexing at all, the only difference is, that unlike metals, you cannot permanently deform it, with out fracturing it, it doesn't have ductile properties. However, if you have ever seen carbon fiber reinforced fishing rods, you will see that those products are capable of flexing quite a lot, but not deform. I would suggest that the end plate is 2 seperate pieces that were bonded together, and the one that appears bent into an "S" shape is not actually permanetly deformed, but simply held in that paticular position where it is flexing. Remember it is still attached to the the wing, and there could be some broken components underneath the end plate forcing it to flex up in that position.
