Red Bull RB9 Renault

[bhall]

[...]

What gain does rbr find in keeping such big front brake scoops?

"My, what big scoops you have."

All the better to gain an(other) aerodynamic edge with a blown hub.

[thisisatest]

does anyone see the little intake above the diff output? was one there last year? what's it for?


on this one, it's interesting the gurney bends down at each diffuser fin, almost to an opposite angle from the gurney itself. what for? is it keeping the gap from diffuser to gurney even? some smart aero dude, please enlighten.

[wesley123]

No aero guy could give an answer to that, such small details just require understanding on what actually is happening there, and no one knows that. We all have an general idea of what is going on there, but no one knows what specifically for the RB9 is going on there.

As for the gearbox, I dont see what you're aiming at.

[atanatizante]

A higher rake helps lowering RW AoA or the main reason for that is to increase the volume of diffuser?

[thisisatest]

No aero guy could give an answer to that, such small details just require understanding on what actually is happening there, and no one knows that. We all have an general idea of what is going on there, but no one knows what specifically for the RB9 is going on there.

As for the gearbox, I dont see what you're aiming at.

Protrusion in carbon directly above the blue seal at the driveshaft/transmission.

And of course I didn't expect concrete answers, just better-educated guesses.

[wesley123]

I'm sorry, but I'm not seeing it

[Forza]

F1 Australian GP - Saturday - 16/3/2013

[henra]

And of course I didn't expect concrete answers, just better-educated guesses.

Ok, I'll bite and try a guess:
I could imagine that the purpose is exactly to keep the width of the slot constant.
A locally increased gap would mean bigger expansion locally (between Guerney and diffuser) and could lead to local flow separation on the lower side of the Guerney. This would cause cross flow and further separation.
This however would only be a problem if the expansion below the Guerney is so high that it's close to stalling.
As we don't know how far they have gone in that regard, it could be something completely different.

[flyboy2160]

....on this one, it's interesting the gurney bends down at each diffuser fin, almost to an opposite angle from the gurney itself. what for? is it keeping the gap from diffuser to gurney even? some smart aero dude, please enlighten.

my guess:

start with the radii between the downward strakes in the diffuser and upper inner surface of the diffuser. exactly like the intersection of an aircraft wing and fuselage, you want a generous radius there to reduce what's called interference drag. (if I can find a nice picture of the spitfire wing root, i'll post it. it shows this very well.)

at the trailing edge of the diffuser, these radii would form a blunt solid sort of "V" shape unless you dip down the upper surface of the diffuser to follow the radii with a constant thickness. (this both avoids the drag from the solid V and makes it easier to layup.)

so now, as a previous posted guessed, you follow those dips in the gurney trailing edge to keep a constant gap.

edit: here are the spitfire wing root pics. note the large radius blending at the trailing edge of the wing





the great aero performance of this great plane was due in part (next to the engine) to a commitment to reduce aerodynamic drag. the elliptical wing and those generous fillets were a pia to manufacture, but gave superior drag reduction.....somewhat like F1!

this RB9 shaping is just an application of fundamental aero principles to a seemingly little detail. this indicates the thoroughness of their thinking and commitment.

[kilcoo316]

on this one, it's interesting the gurney bends down at each diffuser fin, almost to an opposite angle from the gurney itself. what for? is it keeping the gap from diffuser to gurney even? some smart aero dude, please enlighten.

Simples - the air around the vertical fin has less energy due to the presence of the fin (boundary layers 101). Therefore it would be more inclined to separate off in an adverse pressure gradient scenario (such as this). Thus, they locally reduce the aggression of the diffuser and second element (in the locality of, and in the downstream region of, the diffuser fin) to prevent this separation.

Note, its not a gurney flap folks and there is no gurney on the diffuser!

[flyboy2160]

the separation kilcoo is talking about is the cause of the drag i'm talking about.

[RicerDude]

Interesting that they were running the old front wing and nose for qualifying. Does that mean that they are unable to run it in the race now?

[Neno]

Interesting that they were running the old front wing and nose for qualifying. Does that mean that they are unable to run it in the race now?

no, you can change during pitstop your front wing. But more interesting is they using old front wing, this mean they have problems with new one.

[ringo]

[...]

What gain does rbr find in keeping such big front brake scoops?

"My, what big scoops you have."

All the better to gain an(other) aerodynamic edge with a blown hub.

http://i.imgur.com/rWd1pya.jpg

Why are we hearing all this blown talk?
Remember you have to keep the tyres from over heating. So you have to keep the wheel rim cool from the heat coming off the brakes.


Ok for this gearbox:


Anyone notice the bellcrank has a more cylindrical shape at the hinge? Last years and the year before didnt look like this.
What's also different is that we can no longer see the dampers which were on the sides linked to the bell cranks.
I have a hunch that rotary dampers are being used on this car.
I could be wrong, but that cylindrical shape may well be housing the rotary dampers.
Otherwise the dampers are simply in the gearbox housing.

[bhall]

[...]

What gain does rbr find in keeping such big front brake scoops?

"My, what big scoops you have."

All the better to gain an(other) aerodynamic edge with a blown hub.

http://i.imgur.com/rWd1pya.jpg

Why are we hearing all this blown talk?
Remember you have to keep the tyres from over heating. So you have to keep the wheel rim cool from the heat coming off the brakes.

[...]

That's valid. I just have a hard time trying to convince myself that the defending three-time World Champions are somehow behind the curve on keeping everything nice and cool with a low-drag, scoopless design. Plus, I've come to realize over the last few years that if you can imagine something on any F1 car, Adrian Newey probably already has it on his F1 car.