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Team: Matt Morris (CD), Willem Toet (HA), Beat Zehnder (Team Manager), Monisha Kalterborn (CEO)
Drivers: Nico Hulkenberg (11), Esteban Gutierrez (12)
As far as I know, what you see on the bikes is a graphite (or something else) material on the outside of the carbon fibre. The whole idea about carbon fibre reinforced plastic (CRFP) is that it is carbon fibre weave soaked in resin then cured in an oven. Similar to fibreglass except that fibre glass is exactly that, long strands of glass woven together then soaked in resin. Also it doesn't need to be placed in an oven to cure properly.slimfitcasual wrote:Cleanest car in the grid this year for sure!
Anyone know if all the carbon weave is really necessary though? The cycling industry has gone away completely from carbon weave on high end road bikes to save grams, opting for the raw marbly looking carbon layups.
McLaren's own collaboration with Specialized for example.
http://pedalmag.com/wp-content/uploads/ ... en-2.2.jpg
suspension arms are generally loaded in direct compression/tension. a tube made with unidirectional carbon isn't going to have every layer in only one direction. you orient different layers according to the requirements of the structure. weave is generally much tougher at the expense of stiffenss, and is more resistant to crack propagation. so you could see a single suspension arm built with mostly unidirectional fibers (some at 30 or 45degree angles, esp if there is some torsional load), and then at connection areas with hard points you will supplement with weave. the hard point areas are sometimes cut, drilled, machined before bonding to its mate.trinidefender wrote:Been doing some reading. It seems that uni-directional cordon fibre is very strong along its axis in tension loads. However a major downside seems to be its weakness if:
1. Off axis loads are present, all of which will occurs in a F1 cars suspension.
2. If a single strand is broken it compromises the strength of the strands next to it and placing all the load in that area on the resin.
3. Unidirectional CFRP doesn't seem as strong with bearing loads.....well what do you think the suspension connects to....bearings.
Woven carbon fibre seems to work very well in most applications because:
1. It is very strong in off axis loads, such as in suspension movement.
2. It is very stiff in off axis loads, again, such as in the suspension.
3. It retains almost all of its strength even if part of it gets punctured or a strand gets broken.
4. Since if works well with off axis loads, it is easier to predict how it will react and you will have to spend less R & D time and money on working out all the forces and the level of the forces involved to pick where exactly you can use unidirectional and where you have to use woven. This will make the quick production of parts easier, cheaper and faster.
By making the suspension members out of multiple layers of unidirectional CFRP with most in alternating directions then you are mimicking have carbon fibre weave is. To do what you want to do will probably come out to a similar weight because of the added layers that you will have to use in a cross pattern relative to the other sheets. Think about it. For example, say you have 5 layers of CFRP weave then they can all be layered on top of each other and be very strong and fairly light with a good resistance to crack propagation. Now take the same situation with the difference being you have 5 layers of unidirectional CFRP. Each successive layer will be placed in a different direction according to your needs. This will probably be very light and quite strong once their are no forces that weren't predicted. This will probably result in a slightly lighter part yet be suceptable to damage.thisisatest wrote:suspension arms are generally loaded in direct compression/tension. a tube made with unidirectional carbon isn't going to have every layer in only one direction. you orient different layers according to the requirements of the structure. weave is generally much tougher at the expense of stiffenss, and is more resistant to crack propagation. so you could see a single suspension arm built with mostly unidirectional fibers (some at 30 or 45degree angles, esp if there is some torsional load), and then at connection areas with hard points you will supplement with weave. the hard point areas are sometimes cut, drilled, machined before bonding to its mate.trinidefender wrote:Been doing some reading. It seems that uni-directional cordon fibre is very strong along its axis in tension loads. However a major downside seems to be its weakness if:
1. Off axis loads are present, all of which will occurs in a F1 cars suspension.
2. If a single strand is broken it compromises the strength of the strands next to it and placing all the load in that area on the resin.
3. Unidirectional CFRP doesn't seem as strong with bearing loads.....well what do you think the suspension connects to....bearings.
Woven carbon fibre seems to work very well in most applications because:
1. It is very strong in off axis loads, such as in suspension movement.
2. It is very stiff in off axis loads, again, such as in the suspension.
3. It retains almost all of its strength even if part of it gets punctured or a strand gets broken.
4. Since if works well with off axis loads, it is easier to predict how it will react and you will have to spend less R & D time and money on working out all the forces and the level of the forces involved to pick where exactly you can use unidirectional and where you have to use woven. This will make the quick production of parts easier, cheaper and faster.
for a given strength and stiffness requirement, if you made a tube with nothing but weave, it would be much heavier than one made with unidirectional fibers.
+100Huntresa wrote:This car is indisputedly the best looking car this year but also the one i felt let me down the most, if only they had had the pace to start with, what a good season this could have been...