Lotus E21 Renault

[Sebp]

I found something old and fun about hydropneumatic suspension:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1IgfniOIdM[/youtube]

Just for the sake of basic knowledge.

[hollus]

@Ringo, why so focused on the word spring itself? A classic suspension is (or behaves like) a combination of springs, but the function of the suspension is not to "spring", it is to "suspend". There are other ways of absorbing irregularities and counteracting forces than springs in Hooke's law sense. Going to extremes with exotic ideas, I can imagine a condensation based suspension, or a liquid/solid plutonium suspension (neither practical nor light). Maybe there is no springing at all (other than the tires), just a gigantic, car-wide damper, and the wheels would not extend at all if the car took off in a jump. Or maybe...

I agree that there is probably some sort of spring in this system, be it an air reservoir or anything else, but let's not obsess over the word spring. There might be something rather unconventional going on here, after all the Mercedes behave like completely different cars depending on their fuel load and Grosjean's Lotus behaves like Moodie Marla.

[ringo]

There's nothing unconventional going on, there can't be.
The regulations:

1.13 Sprung suspension :
The means whereby all complete wheels are suspended from the body/chassis unit by a spring
medium.

10.1 Sprung suspension :
10.1.1 Cars must be fitted with sprung suspension.

further more:

This is what that psuedo "spring" damper thingamajig would be breaching:

Any device or construction that is designed to bridge the gap between the sprung part of the
car and the ground is prohibited under all circumstances.

why? because it's not the springs, it's a column of hydraulic oil when that damper bottoms out. A bridge of solid as a rock grade A hydraulic oil. lol

So yes we have to "obsess" over the word spring. Unless you are saying F1 cars don't need springs at all.

[PlatinumZealot]

you better tell Andre Citroën about that!

See the above posts.. Hydrualic fluid? Spring?!! Craziness. lol

You are assuming that the fluid is hydraulic oil on all parts of the system? I didn't assume that at all by the article.
I agree with your point (and other's) that the spring effect can't come from elasticity from the pipes. There are too much variables in action there, from temperature to phisical properties of the pipe materials. I would believe that they have chosen materials with stabler behaviour with temperature and pressure variations and would rely on different materials on a contained area to have the spring effect.

Not that I'm deffending that they really have an hydraulic suspension but only assuming that it's not impossible that they have it. Perhaps hydraulic was a term used with a broader scoap than it should have been. Nevertheless, with proper containers/reservoirs where they might have a compressible fluid, than it would be feasible.
Advantages? Cons? Well, I could only think of layout and CoG. They can put such containers in advantageous location. If this is really a pro feature, I'm not sure since I don't really know how small and light are the F1 springs nowadays. They might have found the weight to be in excess but the interconnection an advantage and due to the fact that they might be able to locate it on a better (for CoG) location....

You are talking about an assembly of parts that happens to be actuated by hydraulic fluid, not hydraulic fluid alone by itself. That is nothing special. The haudraulic fluid does not act as the spring in the system you describe. Hydraulic fluid is used to transmit forces. Be it via dampening, turbine coupling, or hydrostatic pressure. Its crazy to use it is a spring because the elastic modulus is extremely high.

Hydraulic suspension and Hydraulic spring is two totally different meanings.

[Richard]

Woah!

There seems to be something lost in translation here because you’re all saying the same thing. Everyone agrees that hydraulic fluid cannot compress under practical conditions. However it is possible to have a hydraulic system that includes compressible components and dampers to create sprung suspension. Agreed?

[CBeck113]

AMEN! Let's carry on with the car .... can't wait to see the updates for Barcelona and, especially since Allison has left, over the rest of the year. He'll have influenced the direction of development, but there will be changes in the details. I hope for the better; even as a Ferrari fan, I really respect their work over the past two seasons.

[stefan_]

Spain 2013 - Thursday (09.05.2013)

[kwanchepan]

new endplate ??

[CottrellGP]

new endplate ??
http://i.imgur.com/4CN3dfD.jpg

Yep and it looks nice!

[Owen.C93]

Looks like it's for shredding your opponents tyre.

[Huntresa]

Or its an optical illusion

[scarlet]

Looks like big change to/removal of the DRD intakes on the engine cover carried by that mechanic?

[quidam]

About DRD :

http://www.blogf1.it/2013/05/09/lotus-i ... -montmelo/

[stefan_]

Spain 2013 - Thursday (09.05.2013)

[kwanchepan]