Lotus E21 Renault

[stefan_]

Going out as soon as the session restarted.




via Lotus F1 Team

[Joie de vivre]

Isn't that illegal? I mean the little bridge over Williams exhaust was illegal, this is not?

[beelsebob]

Isn't that illegal? I mean the little bridge over Williams exhaust was illegal, this is not?

Sorry, what part of what is illegal?

[stefan_]

Craig Scarborough ‏@ScarbsF1
@andystobart of @Lotus_F1Team confirmed that the covered exhaust was just an aero test, not a new idea to be raced.

[beelsebob]

Oh, it was covered? My eyes were seeing it inside out then!

[Blackout]

Look at that slotted bargeboard. Like a stairway

[stefan_]

Barcelona (Test 3, Session 2) - Day 4 (03.03.2013)














via Lotus F1 Team

[MarkedOne8]

Remember the regulations about exhaust pipes? The angle on horizontal axis must be no less than 10 degree pointing upward. Exhaust like this is pointing downard, so it is ilegal. I think they just wanted to see how good their actual solution is by comparing it to, probably the best possible, solution.

[neilbah]

exactly what i thought too, gives a comparison for some kind of reference even if technically its not legal

[wesley123]

So it seems like they copied my bargeboard solution. That gives a bit of a morale boost lol

[stefan_]

Barcelona (Test 3, Session 2) - Day 4 (03.03.2013)

[Rikhart]

Look at that slotted bargeboard. Like a stairway
http://www7.pic-upload.de/03.03.13/rjgy5w4dvxz.jpg
http://www7.pic-upload.de/03.03.13/ivvo2hly19s.jpg

Most innovative feature seen this winter, after williams blown wheels? Never seen a bargeboard remotely similar to that.

[Blackout]

Me too.

Here a larger and differently shaped air outlet, especially around the gearbox/crash structure (the area that is supposedly fed via the cross tunnel)

[Neno]

It looks like three-leaf clover, Blackout

[shelly]

The vortex created from the strake is close to the footplate vortex, and is rotating in the opposite sense, Ideally you would like to blow the exhaust between these two voritces, in order to achieve the famous "sealing" effect

what you call footplate vortex is the one on the lower side of the floorplate I assume, i.e. the one created by the lower side of the bargeboard.

The vortex of the strake will ilkely add to the vortex created by the upper side of the barge board moving through the undercut alongside the sidepod and above the floorplate. This vortex will be rotating on the upper side to the inside of the car, thus in the opposite direction of the lower 'floorplate vortex'.
It would be interesting to see a high resoution CFD of the Ramp solution. I'm wondering how much of the upper side vortex (from the barge board) through the undercut will go into the tunnel and what happens to the remaining vortex: will it move straight ahead along the strake to the diffuser edge ? That's what I assume is the goal. But does it work that way?

I wrote "footplate vortex" but I should have written "diffuser footplate vortex", meaning the vortex that develops aroud the diffuser edge, like a wing tip vortex, because of the pressure differential between upper and lower surface. Air goes down veritcally in the gap between diffuser edge and rear wheel, arounf the diffuser edge.
The vortex forme by the strake we are discussing about flows in the same gap, on the other side i.e. cloer to the wheel.
Looking at the left rear wheel from the front you would see the diff. footplate vortex turning clockwise, and the other vortex turning counterclockwise.
I am not sure that the vortex created by the upper part of the bargeboard lasts all the way to the back along the undercut; the vortex from the lower edge of the bargeboard goes under the floor but is more central, and I think its effect is lost half teh way down to the floor.