Curved Radiators

[trinidefender]

Curved radiators are used all over the motorcycle world. Just wondering why they aren't being seen in the F1 world. The way I see it, with a curved radiator you can have a radiator with more surface area fit into a smaller space. This seems like such an obvious idea to me so there must be some reason why the engineers never decided to use them.

[gruntguru]

Radiators work best when airflow is perpendicular to the face. Inclined radiators are a compromise - usually the airflow in the duct is directed to "bend" to hit the radiator at 90 deg.

Curved radiators would work best with an airflow that was diverging (if the concave side faced upstream) or converging (if the convex side faced upstream). Perhaps motorcycles tend to have a diverging airstream - to get past the engine?

[wuzak]

Curved radiators would work best with an airflow that was diverging (if the concave side faced upstream) or converging (if the convex side faced upstream). Perhaps motorcycles tend to have a diverging airstream - to get past the engine?

This what I was thinking. Plus the air can be directed by the front wheel fairing/guard.

[hpras]

Curved radiators are usually used for front wheel clearance purposes when the fork is at full compression.

[Cold Fussion]

A lot of motorbikes (especially sports bikes) have the radiator just behind the front wheel, so they can also be curved to make it conform to the bike geometry better.

[trinidefender]

I know that many times the radiator is curved for clearance issues. But I have to wonder if they could possibly have any F1 application. The name of the game in radiators is surface area and adding in a curve allows you to run more surface area within the same space. I wonder if it is more effective to make a radiator thicker instead of making it curved. The convergence, divergence issues probably come into play as well.

[Blackout]

Almost curved:


http://www.formula1.com/wi/full/ta_arti ... cle_25.jpg
http://i185.photobucket.com/albums/x21/ ... bd1b75.jpg

[J.A.W.]

This 'Flight' article gives ~70 y/old figures from research showing drag reduction benefits from "curved radiators"..
..albeit in this instance the ducted airflow is oblique to an annular-wise curved..
..radiator matrix complex combining primary liquid coolant & oil cooling functions..

http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/ ... 01441.html

[Cold Fussion]

I wonder if it is more effective to make a radiator thicker instead of making it curved. The convergence, divergence issues probably come into play as well.

While I haven't got the calculations in front of me, I'm fairly sure that increasing the thickness of the radiator is less beneficial compared to increasing the frontal area of the radiator. Whether or not that holds for curved radiators will depend on duct geometry. A thicker core will also have a greater pressure drop across the radiator as well, so you potentially have greater drag and/or less effective cooling but again without running the calculations it's hard to say for sure. I have some pressure drop data from PWR (the Australian division) for different core thicknesses if anyone is super keen to run calculations.

[riff_raff]

Increasing the thickness of a liquid/air heat exchanger core may or may not improve its efficiency. There are many factors to consider, including pressure drop of the cooling airflow across the thicker, smaller area core, pressure drop of the liquid coolant flow through the longer tubes of the curved heat exchanger, airflow drag penalty imposed by the thicker core vs. that imposed by the larger core face area, and packaging considerations of each core design.

[Blackout]

We know Williams, STR and RBR use curved/bent/twisted radiators/intercoolers atleast since 2019


But yesterday I stumbled upon this pic from 2013... is it curved or is it just an optical illusion?

[trinidefender]

We know Williams, STR and RBR use curved/bent/twisted radiators/intercoolers atleast since 2019
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EALnGbkXUAAKEay.jpg:large

But yesterday I stumbled upon this pic from 2013... is it curved or is it just an optical illusion?
https://i.imgur.com/Wk4J5CE.jpg

It's definitely curved in the bottom picture