F1 in schools front wing

[ONdiogosa]

Hey! I am a 16 years old Portuguese student and I am participating for the 2nd time in the F1 in schools project.
My question to you is to help me creating a front wing that becomes like a shield in order to stop the wind to contact with the front wheels directly. That would be aesy but my team philosophy is doing a F1 car not a Le mans or a normal car, this might sound stupid but this idea is very challanging and I think this might work!

So... Ideas?

[wesley123]

90 degree ramp

[Caito]

I support wesley's idea pretty much. If curvature added, I prefer it concave rather than convex.

[flynfrog]

please take a minute to use the search function on this site there are quite a few threads that can help you out.

[ONdiogosa]

Thank you all, I considered all your tips and I drew a 2 parts front wing. Firstly (bellow), an allmost straight part to "drive" the air to the bottom of the wheel and above, a 90º airfoil to drive the air above the wheel. What do you think?

[wesley123]

rather turn it left and right, then you have the leat influence i would say

[flynfrog]

Thank you all, I considered all your tips and I drew a 2 parts front wing. Firstly (bellow), an allmost straight part to "drive" the air to the bottom of the wheel and above, a 90º airfoil to drive the air above the wheel. What do you think?

where is all of that air you are sending under the wheel going to go?

[ONdiogosa]

The air under the wheel will go to the floor of course! I want to send some air for the lowest part of the wheel in order to give it more rotations, isn`t it? I think it is benefic if the air flows in the lowest part of the wheel instead of the highest part of it right?

Like this:

[Tozza Mazza]

The air under the wheel will go to the floor of course! I want to send some air for the lowest part of the wheel in order to give it more rotations, isn`t it? I think it is benefic if the air flows in the lowest part of the wheel instead of the highest part of it right?

Like this:

Hi, although that does sound good in theory, the tiny benefit is outweighed by the disadvantage. If you were looking at the wheel from the front, it will look like a rectangle. This shape will give a large drag penalty. In order to have the best car, you want to divert as much air as you can away from the wheel, this will make your car much slipperier and faster. This is also why Le Mans race cars cover their wheels, it is aerodynamically beneficial.

[flynfrog]

also if your wheel is sealed to the floor you would have to lift teh car to get air under. Also keep in mind that your energy is coming from the CO2 canister in the rear not the air you are pushing out of the way.

[ringo]

Put it this way; your wing will no longer be a wing if it blocked air from the front wing. It will be a deflector.

driving air under the wheel will lift it.
You are losing everything just to reduce wheel drag. Why not use smaller front wheels or create a brak duct that curls over the front of the wheel?

[flynfrog]

Put it this way; your wing will no longer be a wing if it blocked air from the front wing. It will be a deflector.

driving air under the wheel will lift it.
You are losing everything just to reduce wheel drag. Why not use smaller front wheels or create a brak duct that curls over the front of the wheel?

well for starters its against the rules and the cars have no brakes

[ONdiogosa]

The rules are too strict, and the reduction of the wheels size would be a good idea if the rules would allow, wich they don`t.
So far, what I learned is to move all the air to the top of the wheel to do not generate lift. Any other sugestions?

[Caito]

Do not generate downforce either, just minimize drag

[seancleary]

Ive done this competition before and we found the following things through cfd testing:

- A very slight concave curve in front of the wheels helps send the air over the wheels efficiently.
- For the part of the wing not in front of the the wheels a narrow convex nose should be used.
- If rules allowed, a gentle bulge under the front wing in front of the wheels can deflect air around them.
- The front wing should be narrower at the front compared to the back so as to ease air outwards.
- The inner hub caps could expand out to fill the gap between the body and wheel so no air gets in that gap. Just make sure this extended hub cap doesnt make contact with the body. (3d print it)
- Making your hub caps bulge out reduces area or turbulence on the side of the wheel and improve efficiency.

I'd reccomend doing comparative tests via CFD(floworks) to see if these work with your design.

Ive attached the bulge hub caps test we did.

Sean Cleary