F1 In Schools - Apastron Project

[Apastron]

Hello,
Im Bennett Hardwick and Im 14 years old and have been competing in a competition called F1 In Schools for 3 years now.


As part of this project we are required to Design, Test, Manufacture and Race a model F1 Car which is 200mm long and weighs about 55g. If you are interested a copy of the rules are here: http://rea.org.au/wp-content/uploads/20 ... les-v1.pdf

After recent success at our Queensland Championships, with our Team Apastron scoring a wildcard into the Australian Nationals, I have decided it was time to find ways on improving our Car Design.

I have a basic understanding of some aerodynamic principles but am still needing much help for my designs. I've read my way through many of the other F1 In Schools topics, and am started from where they left off. The Basizeland Project (viewtopic.php?f=14&t=7438), which was created by Brett, one of our Judges on the day, was the most useful of the forums and is the source of most of my aerodynamic knowledge.

Briefly our design uses a few principles such as the Bernoulli Effect (Wings, Side Pods) the Venturi Effect (Between the side pods) and understanding where low and high pressures are likely to be, and trying to reduce them. ( Faces of Incline, Between the Track and the Car, and Behind the Canister housing are the greatest)

If you'd like to help I've posted pictures of our Cars below.







I would love to hear your ideas.

Regards,
Bennett

[Greg Locock]

Hi Bennett if your design is pretty good you could investigate additional complexities using Design of Experiments (or Taguchi as it is often called). Basically come up with a list of goodies (say gurney flaps) and the angles and sizes you think might work, and the DoE tells you how to investigate these multiple ideas, and explore the optimum combination of them, and their interactions, whicle minimising the number of experimental runs. Wiki may be your friend, if not Google is.

[flynfrog]

very nice looking car. I think as Greg said its now down to fine tuning. This is one of the best first post cars I have seen on here.

You may want to look at fairing in the wheels better. Your fillets are uncovering the wheels somewhat.

[Apastron]

Hey Greg,
Thanks, I've looked at Taguchi and Design of Experiments and im honestly really liking that method of producing products, because its quite different from our approach of just designing cars without concepts or much thought into the design. I think the main reason why our cars are excelling in the Design side of F1 In Schools is because of our innovative use of CATIA, instead of our Design its self. Do you have any ideas for Wiki's or Forums that I could search for second hand ideas? Or topics in F1Technical that might be able to help. Im just stuck on finding the ideas. Also I thought I would look into the Gurney Flap. I remember reading that it tries to reduce pressure on the suction side of the wing, so that the air stays with the wing. It said it gets high lift, which would be quite good for our rear wing, which is directly over the top of the heaviest part of the car. But i've done virtual testing, and i cant see any difference from having the flap, and when its just a plain Bernoulli, Im fairly sure its just Autodesk Falcon, but i could be doing it wrong. Have you seen it have a large effect on small scale designs?

Sorry I talk so much... I never actually expected anyone to help.

Flynfrog,
I've seen alot of you across the forum. Do you have any ideas for sites I could look for ideas too? And, was this what you meant by fairing in the wheels as you said. But because of my design method, I dont use fillets so thats about as sharp as i will be able to make them, I've just made them a little bit squarer.


Thanks,
Bennett