F1 in Schools - Wheel System

[Blanchimont]

Here's a very nice slow motion video of a F1 in schools vehicle. It's interesting to see how the CO2 leaves the cartridge and how fast the stream expands. At 1:45 you'll see a bad start in my opinion, the car isn't following the line, maybe because of a wrong placement of the car or the CO2 cylinder in the car.

Does you car start in a straight line and stays on the ground? Moving to the side is clearly a loss of energy that costs some time.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLAnQjB6s0o[/youtube]

[aaronTAR]

Hi there,

Thanks for the insight! It's great to get the actual formula for the problem.

So would you recommend having the wheel as hollow as possible with any weight that's required to be near the centre? I see your point about the bearing and I'll test the bearing system vs the system you have suggested. For the rules about diameter, they state that the wheels must be in contact with the track surface throughout the diameter. They don't allow for ridges etc. (The rules are available to look at as a pdf here: http://www.f1inschools.ie/resources/F1_ ... _Rules.pdf - from page 10 on)

Thanks for the link to that video it's great! Based on that I suppose a system of channeling that air back in a more uniform straight line rather than having it expand in every direction would be beneficial?

Our car definitely stayed on the ground from as much as I could see with the naked eye. However, I'm sure that the jump at the start is something that happens with every car. Is there any way to get around this? Would the suspension idea help?

[Blanchimont]

The rules on the wheels say it must be cylindrical, but at the same time T8.3 allows a tolerance of 0,1mm for the diameter.
That means only 0,05mm deviation is allowed for the radius, so you're pretty much limited here.

Regarding a channeling system behind car it think there could be a little gain if you place a structure that catches the stream at the very beginning, when three seperate streams can be seen. I tried to capture it from the video and show how it could look like. You'll have to do some test if the gain at the start is worth the possible increase in aerodynamic drag.

[aaronTAR]

Hi,

I'll pm you a picture of a basic system I've worked on. I think however a system could be worked to effectively channel flow around the back of the car, whilst also channeling the flow from the canister. Another system is described here: http://www.f1inschools.ie/resources/f1_ ... racing.pdf on page 12. It's a parabolic shape around the back of the canister.

[aaronTAR]

Hi guys,

Just had another quick question re. developing the car itself. Does anyone know of any CFD packages where I could input an airflow to simulate the air coming from the canister? Also are there any free (for students) CFD packages which are more reliable, powerful or accurate than AutoDesk's Flow Design? Or low cost alternatives?

Thanks in advance.