McLaren MP4-29 Mercedes

[eslam1986]

Any more shots of todays front wing? Apparently it was the Melbourne-spec wing that just arrived over night.

McLaren were unable to test a new front wing for the Australian Grand Prix due to engine and electronic problems

[Xero]

Yes, but their testing report suggests they had it on the car up until the engine failure.

[f1rules]

the picture from amus with flowvis shows the new one, but the changes are in the details, changed cascade wing and cut in the mainplane is more soft, the previous was more pronounced

[Avocado]

http://www.formule1.nl/media/uploads/me ... 458.99.jpg

[Owen.C93]

New rear brake ducts. Well, the ones they run at the end of last year. Rumor was they were big gains in the wind tunnel but didn't work on track.

[f1rules]

do the front brakes require more cooling this year or why mclaren gone for their old fashioned huge frontbrakeducts compared to last years very nice solution

[DAMNINice]

I haven`t seen it in this thread so I thought I could share it:



For me flow seems to be surprisingly good attached on the mushrooms.

what do you aero guys think?

And about the diffuser, Is the downwards flow on the diffuser edge a sign that sealing of the diffusser doesen't work 100%?

[Pedro]

Interestingly similar to F1_Aero's comment on Twitter.
https://twitter.com/F1_Aero/status/440240806855970817

[Lycoming]

I would find it very hard to believe that the flow on the backside of the a-arms is attached. It's just too sharp of a change in direction. The top one to me does not indicate attached flow. The bottom one doesn't seem to indicate anything specific, at least not to me. Certainly doesn't look like laminar attached flow, not to me at least. As for the diffuser, I think those just be splashes and not actually indictive of flow conditions. It doesn't look like they were trying to apply the paint there, since there isn't much down there. But I could be wrong. If it is actually indictive of the flow, then yes I would interpret that as poor sealing of the diffuser.

[DAMNINice]

with such a low pressure area behind the mushroos, i#m not sure if it would be better to use a smaller gurney on the diff and use additional height inside the diff?

[henra]

I haven`t seen it in this thread so I thought I could share it:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BhwIerRCQAAMkVu.jpg:large

For me flow seems to be surprisingly good attached on the mushrooms.

Difficult to say what the nature of this flow exactly is. On the upper wishbone I assume this would be more of an equalising flow towards the area of low pressure above the upper mushroom. The apparent missing of a similar pattern on the lower one the other hand is in so far maybe not 100% ideal as it might indicate that the flow is less fast and or vertically directed immediately above the diffuser. For a perfect coupling of the diffuser to the Rear Wing it might have been more positive if there was a clearer pattern on the lower wishone. The one only on the upper one doesn't say too much about the immediate impact on the diffuser although if it is directed upward, chances are there is a general upwards flow field behind the suspension.
Since such equalising flow would be of relatively low velocity, the flow being attached as such is probably not very important for the overall functioning of the general principle but it does seem to confirm that the general pressure gradient is working in the correct direction and thus that it won't be detrimental at least.

And about the diffuser, Is the downwards flow on the diffuser edge a sign that sealing of the diffusser doesen't work 100%?

Since the diffuser is an area of low pressure, a downward flow on the outsides (if that is really the case here and it is not just random splashes or even inverse flow) then this would be a rather positive sign since it indicates that no air is sucked into the diffuser from the sides.
Bad sign would be inverse or upwards Patterns around the side footplate of the diffuser. That doesn't semm to be the case.
The only area which I'm not to sure of is the TE of the diffuser itself. That Looks a bit like a small area of inverse flow but it could also be a result of the way the FlowViz was applied.

[variante]

And about the diffuser, Is the downwards flow on the diffuser edge a sign that sealing of the diffusser doesen't work 100%?

Not necessarily.
The diffuser is a region dominated by vortices...there are plenty of them. Observing a vortex directed orizontally, you would notice components of airstream going downwards and upwards, spiraling around the core, the which indicates the true direction of the vortex itself (orizontal, in our case).

The cores of the vortices generated by diffuser's strakes are upwashed, but we could still observe components of those very same vortices being directed downwards.

[avatar]

In the flow vis pic; to me it looks like there's a whacking great vortex coming off the upper arm of the suspension - hence the spiral pattern.

Is that by design do you reckon?

[Per]

It doesn't make much sense for a vortex to be there in my opinion. I think it's a "random" pattern due to application of the flow-viz.

Also, I wonder how well flow-viz works for a vertical upward flow (gravity pulls the liquid down against the flow). Does anyone know if this is a problem? If it is, it might explain the unclear pattern on the mushrooms.

[DAMNINice]

Also, I wonder how well flow-viz works for a vertical upward flow (gravity pulls the liquid down against the flow). Does anyone know if this is a problem? If it is, it might explain the unclear pattern on the mushrooms.

first I was thinking about that, too.
But when gravity is a problem (effecting) for flowviz, then you would see lateral movement in the flowviz, too due to the lateral Gs (which are much higher than the 1G by gravity)

I´m not really sure If there is any movement in the flowviz at all.
I tried to modify the image to trace contours but It wasn`t helpful at all.
here you can see the result:


and this is how it looks when Flowviz is really indicating a attached flow:




So maybe its just the random spray-pattern and it fools us a bit, looking like there is some indicated flow.

Nevertheless, I thought about high and lowpressure zones using those mushrooms and I think it could be possible that there is some flow attached.

Due to the highpressure area in front of the diffs gurney, the air above is pushed upwards.
This might help the air making the "sharp" turn onto the surface of the lower mushroom.
the air between the Mushrooms is pushed upwards, due to their geometry, leaving a low pressure area ontop of the lower mushroom, too which sucks the air coming from under the lower mushroom further upwards..



So this might be an explanation If thre is really an attached flow, visible.