beelsebob wrote:Spencifer_Murphy wrote:The heat exchanger idea makes no sense because heating the flow of air from inside the sidepod does not add velocity to it (the flow). In addition it would make the air less dense, thus reducing the mass-flow rate of air being used to "blow" the diffuser. Lastly I can't seem to find any exits around the bulge for this air to be expelled from the sidepods and to the diffuser; unless we consider the outlet at the centre near the diffuser but if that was the case we come back to point 1. why bother to heat the air?
That all being said though, I am also interested by these bulges, but I believe their "secret" is more to do with how they develop, are we going to see other iterations of the design etc?
Huh? No – heating air doesn't magically make some of it's mass disappear.
Yes, it makes it less dense, but the mass remains constant – the volume increases, which causes the velocity to increase, especially when pushed through a tiny exhaust hole. This is the same principal a jet engine works on.
Being only a recent graduate of engineering, I feel almost not worthy of posting on this forum with my limited understanding, However:
I missed the part about how you suggest to heat the air. Whether it is using a heat exchanger heated by coolant or whatever, or an exhaust pipe for example - specifically NOT using exhaust gasses, as this has been established that it is not allowed by the rules - just the heat from the pipe/hot surface itself.
Taking the heat exchanger (radiator) for example, I would think that the flow of air through the fins of the radiator would be rather restricted and therefore slowed down, negating any benefit of heating the air and increasing its velocity?
Although I do not know much about the passing air flow properties of an F1 radiator...