March 21, 2008

Shaky Bargeboards

Considering the amount of painstaking detail that goes into the aerodynamics of the cars I am very surprised there would be so much flapping around allowed in the Ferrari barge boards.   Perhaps it's an optical illusion?  they seem pretty steady on the Mclaren.

In that second clip,  Hamilton is driving a very twitchy setup.  If his race car drives like that on Sunday I don't see his tires lasting long.



6 comments:

  1. Those are not "barge boards", "barge boards" are the deflectors just beneath those devices aimed at creating vortex flows around sidepods and rear wheels and underbody.

    Those devices are called "boomerang wings" even if in aeronautics we would simply call them "coupled canards".

    It is hard to say if the move of not, but that's fairly possible due to their chord and sweep.

    Well anyway a lof of devices actually flew in f1.

    ReplyDelete
  2. "flex" not "flew".

    Additionally boomerang wings are also vortex generators

    ReplyDelete
  3. I guess I'm surprised because I thought any variation on pitch would reduce or at least alter the performance of the airfoil...

    ReplyDelete
  4. "I guess I'm surprised because I thought any variation on pitch would reduce or at least alter the performance of the airfoil..."

    ....for the better.

    Designed in deflection ?

    ReplyDelete
  5. I can see that on a front or rear wing where they flex and change the angle but a vibrating piece? I would imagine that would make a mess of the airflow...

    ReplyDelete
  6. "make a mess of the airflow" is exactly what vortex generators do, but in a very uniform, predictable fashion. They are used to better "stick" air to a specific surface that nominally wouldn't have the air as well attached.
    -Freep

    ReplyDelete

nRelate Posts Only