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By 
Sunday, February 09, 2014
The rear wing will have been an
important design consideration for the teams this year with both the
loss of the lower (beam) wing and the loss of 20mm in height for the
upper wing planes. The beam wings loss has both a structural and
aerodynamic impact on the overall design and so teams will use
different solutions to minimise the losses. In the case of Ferrari
they have opted to use two vertical mounting pylons [1] that sit atop
of the crash structure and bow out to around the maximum 100mm from
the centreline to allow the exhaust space.
Ferrari used leading edge tyre wake
slots [2] on several occasions last season, having seen others make
marginal gains from their use. The idea is to make the Endplate more
efficient, allowing the pressure gradient to bleed between both sides
of it. We call them tyre wake slots as the airflow structure emitted
by the tyre is important in this interaction with the Endplates.
Whereas last season the team utilsed singular, slim tyre wake slots
at the leading edge of each Endplate, the F14T has much larger twin
slots on each Endplate.
At the tail of the Endplate we see that
Ferrari have carried over an element from the F138, albeit a singular
element this year rather than it's predecessors twin version. These
trailing edge slats [3] not only increase the aspect ratio of the
wing, giving an increase in downforce, but also displace the
formation of tip vortices delaying the onset of formation drag.
Posts
How do the trailing edge slats increase the aspect ratio of the wing?
ReplyDeleteHmmm perhaps I should have said they create a wider optimal window for the aspect ratio of the Wing.
DeleteI know it's a poor picture drawn in a few seconds but have a look at the image in the link below:
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y62/Somersrallyslag/photo1_zpsa7aef686.jpg
As an example I've quickly sketched a drawing of a rear wing with a singular plane and one with a mainplane and flap. The wing on the left's angle of attack is too aggressive at lower speeds and so the airflow detaches from the low pressure side losing downforce and efficiency. In the right hand picture, the interjection of airflow between the flaps allows the airflow to overcome the AoA and stay attached to the elements increasing downforce. Of course the Endplates operate in a different by fairly similar way, the trailing edge slats therefore help the structure and the airflow around it to operate over a wider operating window. (Especially handy in yaw)