Front Wing F-Duct

[forty-two]

Interesting. Have you got any pictures to show this?

Also, did they have BOTH the vent at the front of the nose AND the vent on the top of the tub?

Did they run this only in practice, or in the race proper?

[PhillipM]

Mercedes is really stupid to test the front Fduct at Japan!

Now they will not get any advantage of it! The news is on almost every F1 webpage.

Everybody will drive with that next year!

Or perhaps everyone will waste a lot of time trying to get something that doesn't exist to work on their car, whilst the Merc engineers get on with improving their car?

[raymondu999]

They tested it in Japan? Btw I think this should be in the W03 thread. Mods?

[freedom_honda]

Inlet at stagnation point? Really?

It's not a stagnation point. Teams have been using that inlet to feed air into the cockpit for cooling purposes for years.

One question for those familiar with fluid dynamics, doesn't flow separation creates more drag? How did the team manage to reduce drag by stalling the rear wing last year?

[matt21]

However if the flow over the ‘flap’ section of the wing can be stalled, the lift/drag ratio worsens, but the overall result is a massive drop in the coefficient of lift, resulting in a net reduction in drag, hence the benefits in relation to top speed. It should however be noted that it is only stalling the trailing edge flow that is beneficial as opposed to stalling the entire wing.

http://www.racecar-engineering.com/tech ... echnology/

[King Six]

Mercedes is really stupid to test the front Fduct at Japan!

Now they will not get any advantage of it! The news is on almost every F1 webpage.

Everybody will drive with that next year!

It'll probably (definitely) be banned, maybe if we're lucky it will be the Double Diffuser/F-duct/EBD of 2012, and then they ban it for 2013. Doubt it though seeing as the FIA have a very long time to ban it.

[GSBellew]

Interesting. Have you got any pictures to show this?

Also, did they have BOTH the vent at the front of the nose AND the vent on the top of the tub?

Did they run this only in practice, or in the race proper?

Here are some pictures:

Hungary, Both cars had the front nose vent open, neither had the upper vent:



Then in Spa, Both have the nose vent and its uncovered on both of them, but only Schumachers has the upper vent.






Then at Monza, Both cars now have the upper vent, they also both have the one on the nose uncovered:









At Korea, both cars have the upper vent but the lower one is now visibly covered:

[horse]

There doesn't seem to be much clarity on the details of this. This is from autosport:

Mercedes is experimenting with an innovative front wing that uses the F-duct concept to boost downforce.

The airflow entering the slot on the front of the nose is, under certain air pressure conditions, diverted through channels in the front wing assembly and then redirected out of slots in the bottom of the main plane.

This airflow is fed to the diffuser, boosting the downforce generated at the rear of the car. This has also improved the way that the Mercedes uses its rear tyres.

Mercedes GP experimenting with F-duct front wing

Seems hard to believe that it would have an effect on the diffuser.

[Giblet]

Not sure it should be called an f-duct as that implies a switchable system like Mclaren came up with for a fluidic switch. This does not have such a switch, its just always on.

I would hazard to call it a blown wing. Sounds like something autosport should get right, unless I am wrong.

[Tozza Mazza]

Not sure it should be called an f-duct as that implies a switchable system like Mclaren came up with for a fluidic switch. This does not have such a switch, its just always on.

I would hazard to call it a blown wing. Sounds like something autosport should get right, unless I am wrong.

At first I was sceptical, but this concept seems to be gathering support. Could be an interesting way to claw back lost rear downforce, although we have no proof until we see an outlet. I'm keen to see the W03 in testing now!

[PlatinumZealot]

Not sure it should be called an f-duct as that implies a switchable system like Mclaren came up with for a fluidic switch. This does not have such a switch, its just always on.

I would hazard to call it a blown wing. Sounds like something autosport should get right, unless I am wrong.

The autosport article is a little nonsensical with regard to the explanation. But I guess somebody will soon come up with a proper explanation. We here an F1 technical should be able to crack it like we did the first F-duct.

[raymondu999]

Maybe it's actually not an f-duct at all - maybe the front wing has a *cough* dead zone *cough*

[Tozza Mazza]

Maybe (just maybe), Mercedes are looking at supercirculation.

Sonic59's thread from a few weeks ago viewtopic.php?f=6&t=10762, shows that there are potential benefits to using this.

If they can use the air outlet to boost the pressure differential, it can increase Downforce, as opposed to the 2010 F Duct, which reduced drag.

This is all pure speculation though!

[PlatinumZealot]

Maybe they want to carry steeper front wing angles seeing that there will be low noses next year. By diverting the air and filling the dead pocket that will be behind the 2012 low nose, you can reduce a whole lotta drag.

[Yogibear]

Maybe (just maybe), Mercedes are looking at supercirculation.

Sonic59's thread from a few weeks ago viewtopic.php?f=6&t=10762, shows that there are potential benefits to using this.

If they can use the air outlet to boost the pressure differential, it can increase Downforce, as opposed to the 2010 F Duct, which reduced drag.

This is all pure speculation though!

This is kind of what I was trying to say in my last post that this would appear to be a way to increse the pressure differecne between the upper and lower portions of the wing.

It has also occured to me that the position of the outlets may be trying to effect the airflow flowing over the stubby airfoil at the rear of the wing and in so doing effect the flex of the wing ie bending. At lower speeds the airflow out of the slats artifically crestes low pressure beneath stubby wings. The effect of this then acts to bend the wing down below the minimum allowed to increase the effect of ground effect. However at higher speed the flow of air from the forwards speed is greater over coming the air flow from the slats. So at low speed the effect is to flex , bend the wing closer to the ground but at higher speeds it is in a higher lower downforce/drag configeration.