McLarens Stalling Rear Wing
(4 posts) (3 voices)-
I think its a vent running through the back end of the shark fin and then onto the rear wing, where it splits out.
From Friends at F1 Technical;
[img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v626/nsmikle/sharkfinnozzle.png[/img]If you know your aero fairly well you should be able to work this out quickly. This doesnt explain the "snorkel" sticking up on the front of the car, and this is a passive version of the same effect/theory /design
Posted 2 years ago # -
So after doing a quick internet brush up on aerodynamic stall I can say that Mclaren are doing something very interesting with air flow over the car.
GEEK ALERT!!! I AM ATTEMPTING TO EXPLAIN A SOMEWHAT COMPLEX SUBJECT TO PEOPLE WHO MAY NOT KNOW PHYSICS OR AERODYNAMICS. SO IF YOU DON'T LIKE HOW I'VE SAID IT THEN REALIZE IT'S NOT FOR YOU...
A normal wing, be it on a plane or on a race car is designed to have the air flow both over and under the wing and rejoin after the wing. This gives very good lift (or negative lift on a race car) vs drag performance. Technically it's called laminar flow. Think of it like the air is laminated to the top and bottom of the wing. Normal aero stall happens when the wing's angle relative to it's true direction through the air is so far apart that the airflows traveling both over and under the wing can't rejoin each other after the wing. The gap left between those airflows is turbulence, like the bumpy stuff that makes you hate flying. When your plane suddenly drops out from under you causing you to violently expel feces while simultaneously announcing to everyone you are doing just THAT very thing, well that's turbulence. The plane suddenly loses lift and drops like a stone. It can do other things but that's not relevant here. Suffice to say turbulence is a wings worst enemy.
Think of it like this. Take a suction cup and press it down on a glass beer coaster then lift. The coaster lifts up with it. The suction cup represents laminar flow air perfectly suited for creating lift. Now take a head of cauliflower and press it down against the beer coaster and lift. Nothing...
The cauliflower is so bumpy and nubbley that it can't suck down close to the surface and make a good seal, for lack of a better phrase. You can kind of think of the airflow like that during aerodynamic stall.But to do this on the Mclaren they would have to tilt the rear wing, which they aren't. So somehow they are able to accomplish this through redirected airflow. So instead of changing the angle of the wing relative to the airflow over the car they are changing the airflow over the car, or at least just before the wing.
It's just amazing how clever some teams are when overcoming the lunacy of the FIA.
Posted 2 years ago #
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