Anhedral wing elements

[gold333]

Can anyone versed in aerodynamics explain the benefits of running an anhedral rear wing element in single seaters?







Excuse the pic of the scale model but I found no other pics with the rear wing coupled to its original diffuser, before the full width diffusers were banned.

Can someone also possibly hazard a guess why we never saw them again apart from on this specific car.

[No Lotus]

In the free stream anhedral or dihedral will lead to more drag for a given level of lift or downforce and, minus other considerations, are suboptimal. Anhedral in airplanes decreases roll stability and is therefore not common (F104 is a prominent exception), whereas dihedral and polyhedral add stability. I have always thought that the anhedral of the Williams wing probably served to remove the center section of the wing from the turbulence around the body of the car.

[gold333]

I have always thought that the anhedral of the Williams wing probably served to remove the center section of the wing from the turbulence around the body of the car.

Are you sure about this? It was said they opted for the A.H. element because the rear of the car was low enough to be on the same level as the drive shaft. It was supposedly designed in combination with that fact. No other cars were so low on the rear of the bodywork. Which still doesn't really explain it.

[wesley123]

It was just to get more wing area, also the center section is more in open airflow and probably also different flow fields(around the airbox) come to play.

It's main adaption here was to get more wing area

[gold333]

It was just to get more wing area, also the center section is more in open airflow and probably also different flow fields(around the airbox) come to play.

It's main adaption here was to get more wing area

Well that makes sense, but if that's the only reason it's odd that no other F1 cars since have used this "trick" to get more wing area. Literally none, that's very odd as it makes sense what you say.

I'd like to get a discussion going on this car with people really versed in aerodynamics (I searched and to my surprise couldn't find an existing thread on the shortcomings of this early season car).

1. Newey admitted that before Imola he made a mistake and the front wing was too high.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Williams_FW16

2. Senna kept going on about the car changing its balance between oversteer and understeer.

3. This anhedral wing element was unique on the grid and has never been used since.

Can someone connect the dots? I wish I knew more about aero.

[flynfrog]

Its been tried a few times since.

[piast9]

Anhedral in airplanes decreases roll stability and is therefore not common (F104 is a prominent exception), whereas dihedral and polyhedral add stability.

In my opinion if that's true for wings generating lift then it would be opposite for the wings generating downforce. I don't know how a roll stability would improve F1 car handling but that's just my observation.

[KeithYoung]

It will increase lifting area yes, however the surface normals are at an angle so the lift generated will be less per unit area than an equivalent straight wing in clean airflow. Also, increasing the area increases drag.

[tathan]

Anhedral in airplanes decreases roll stability and is therefore not common (F104 is a prominent exception), whereas dihedral and polyhedral add stability.

In my opinion if that's true for wings generating lift then it would be opposite for the wings generating downforce. I don't know how a roll stability would improve F1 car handling but that's just my observation.

I'd imagine it would do nothing since the effect is only apparent during sideslip (as i understand it anyway) so unless they're going all dorifto then you wouldn't see enough angle to care.

[wesley123]

Anhedral in airplanes decreases roll stability and is therefore not common (F104 is a prominent exception), whereas dihedral and polyhedral add stability.

In my opinion if that's true for wings generating lift then it would be opposite for the wings generating downforce. I don't know how a roll stability would improve F1 car handling but that's just my observation.

Compared to an airplane an F1 car barely has any roll, pitch, yaw or whatsoever, so these disadvantages do not really count.

[No Lotus]

Anhedral in airplanes decreases roll stability and is therefore not common (F104 is a prominent exception), whereas dihedral and polyhedral add stability.

In my opinion if that's true for wings generating lift then it would be opposite for the wings generating downforce. I don't know how a roll stability would improve F1 car handling but that's just my observation.

Compared to an airplane an F1 car barely has any roll, pitch, yaw or whatsoever, so these disadvantages do not really count.

Yes, I was only referring to the use of anhedral/dihedral in airplanes.

Concerning the point that anhedral increases wing area, that increase is exactly cancelled out by the decrease associated with converting to projected area.

[OO7]

Perhaps it was shaped this way to aid flow extraction from the diffuser, by creating a horizontal component to the stream?

[autogyro]

Was it to accelerate the airflow under the rear wing and over the diffuser to increase the down force.

[olefud]

Was it to accelerate the airflow under the rear wing and over the diffuser to increase the down force.

If so it could be generating wing tip vortices to amplify the affect.