Front Wing

[m3_lover]

I have question in regard to front wings, On Mclarens MP4-21 wing, there are the three different elements , I was wondering what is the point of having the holes between each element, what happens to the air that goes through those holes? I am sorry if this is a repeat question, Im still a rookie at the stuff on formula one.

<img src="http://www.autoblog.com/media/2006/01/mp421front.jpg"/>

[manchild]

Holes must be there because air flowing below each element creates low pressure zone below element while air fowing on top pushes the element down. It could work without the holes too but not as effective as with them but if there were no holes drag would be bigger and efficiency of the wing lower.

Imgine that this is element of wing just turned upside-down

http://www.f1technical.net/articles/10

[DR_K13]

I like that paint job better then the chrome.

[manchild]

I like that paint job better then the chrome.

Who can read your avatar knows why

[DaveKillens]

For this type of aero requirement and speeds involved, you want a wing wider than it is thicker. Just like an airliner wing. In essence, the McLaren front wing is three wings, arrainged so that they augment and compliment the airflow they all experience.

[kilcoo316]

The front wing is triple plane for the same reason aircraft have flaps - to generate loads of downforce (or lift in the case of aeroplanes). Unfortunately, this lift does not come free, and drag will be increased.

A triple plane wing will have more drag than a double plane wing - but will be producing more downforce.



The reason for the gaps is to re-energise the flow underneath the wing as a whole, keep it flowing faster, and thus add to the circulatory bound vortex that is what is providing the downforce.



This shows it quite well - you see the area above the main wing - the air immediately above the surface boundary layer is actually moving quicker than the wake that came from the leading edge slat (uhm, just think of it as the forward wing on the f1 car). Keeping the flow moving = keeping downforce levels up. But there are 3 stagnation points, and 3 wing wakes = more drag.

[Spencifer_Murphy]

Basically, each element is a wing in its own right...and three wings work better than two right?

Others use two wings because they believe two big wings work better than three small ones.

Obviously that is on a very fundamental level...but that is, in essence, what's going on with their wing.

[scarbs]

Multiple element wings when mounted in close proximity like the McLaren three element wing as shown act as a single wing. If a solid wing was created with the same dimensions as the Mac wing, it would suffer terribly from drag and stalling.
On the underside of the wing a layer of air builds up as is passes over the surface, this layer builds until the point the flow separates from the wing and becomes turbulent, stalling the wing. This separation occurs because the wing is set at too high an "angle of attack", the air simply can't follow the wings profile.
To allow the steep wing angles the wing is split to create the slot in between elements. High pressure air from above the wing passes thorough the slots and speeds up the flow underneath. This prevents separation but does cost some efficiency. With teams now using as of the plan area of the front wing as possible, three elements are used to provide two slot gaps and allow for even steeper and longer wings.

It is only when wings are spaced further part that they act as two wings, this is known as a cascade or Bi Plane arrangement. Such as the old rear wing formats banned for 2004 IIRC and now resurrected on the front wings cascades seen on Renault, Williams, Midland and Ferrari.

[kilcoo316]

Hmm, I doubt the double element front wings are stalling though...

They should be able to run the 2nd element at around 20 deg before it would stall...


I guess it must be that close to the limit that the need for 3 or 2 aerofoil sections depends on the profiles of the sections themselves.