Ferrari F138

[diffuser]

Really interesting conversation guys!

[emmepi27]

I'm not a technician, but about tho flow-vis on the F138's floor i think:
1) flow around the sidepods is not bad;
2) problem come out when the front flow has a strong impact with exhaust gasses: looking at the following image (i only have evidenced the flow-vis better to see where flow goes), you can see big turbolence when front flow impact with gasses. So, the exhaust gasses don't "energized" the flow, but stop it! You can see the flow-vis go on the left and on the right of the exhaust flow.
3) the exhaust flow hits a too big area on the floor; he should go only between tyre and diffuser, to seal it.
By the way, it's my opinion and, as i told, i'm not a technician...

[Crucial_Xtreme]

I also asked about the flo-Vis image I posted that shows the leading edge of sidepods & t-tray area.



Aero_A's Response

“@F1_Aero: @Crucial_Xtreme quite clean, little bit of separation at trailing edge of sidepod vane (on floor you can see) and around widest bodywork"


@Henra I asked him about the seemingly lack of flow following the coke bottle shape & he said he didn't see anything worrying.

[.poz]

have you considered that the flow vis can just be burned / pushed away form the high energy/high temperature exhaust ?

[Crucial_Xtreme]

I don't believe they sprayed the floor where the exhaust is. There would be traces of flo-vis on the floor.

[henra]

@Henra I asked him about the seemingly lack of flow following the coke bottle shape & he said he didn't see anything worrying.

Thank you very much!
OK, maybe I was really chasing shadows.
Possibly they simply didn't apply flow viz in that particular area and therefore there are no streamlines to see in the coke bottle area itself.
Case closed me thinks.

[shelly]

https://twitter.com/ScarbsF1/status/396593693609959424

To me this picture is the most telling one, and seems to suggest that the flow does not follow the coke bottle also beacuse of the bad effect of the cooling vents. Strange choice to have vents there, maybe an out of the box attempt of energising a weak flow.

[321apex]

My general comments to the aero issues discussed here. Looking at many fotographs of bodywork solutions applied by all teams, it strikes me to notice TWO key features on the Red Bull car. Namely the significant fillet radius at the base of side pods as well as the noticeable rake the RB car runs.
-fillet radius of large size mimicks a radiused duct and facilitates limited drag penalty while helping transfer a significant air mass around the necessary obstruction a sidepod happens to be; savings in "sidepod drag" can be transferred to both wings for penalty free extra downforce, notwithstanding any other benefits this feature may contribute as well
- rake however is essentially a diffusor in a much larger scale to what we commonly are accustomed to see; calling it "rake" hides the real animal, which really has diffuser like benefits and properties; having said that, Mr. Newey certainly addressed the key issues of sealing it by carefully calibrating the airflow around the car with said sidepod design as well as other aero elements which provide local solutions to air mass flow management; additionally in my view the rear diffuser on a car with such rake must have reduced effectiveness so Mr. Newey keeps it place as a mock to prevent others from catching on

Lastly I am not an aero guy, but do have an engineer's eye and for me it is rather sad to see Scuderia doing their flovis fundamental experiments at the 84 percentile race weeknd of the racing season. It indicates that they lack certainty in understanding the aero aspects of the car upon which they expended many thousands of manhours. When manhours are wasted it indicates lack of clue or direction. Certainly I am no RB fan and get disappointed to see 10/10ths Alonso just barely climb podiums while Newey runs away and hides.

[raymondu999]

[Kiril Varbanov]

Craig S. talks about F138 in a resume: http://edition.pagesuite-professional.c ... e06f859f98

[donskar]

Thanks, Kiril: very good piece.

[csponton]

changed the front wing of the Ferrari

[mkable1370]

Interesting. But if past behavior is any indication, the odds are good this doesn't make it to the race.

[Manoah2u]

changed the front wing of the Ferrari

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-WJyCylRjhQg/U ... 558149.jpg

FORWORD flap?

[tpe]

I wander if the Ferrari engineers are not curious to test a non-coada exhaust, like Williams does.