Emag wrote: ↑09 Mar 2022, 15:06
ringo wrote: ↑09 Mar 2022, 15:03
the EDGE wrote: ↑09 Mar 2022, 09:38
How exactly would you control tyre wake in an era with no no out-wash FW, no bargeboards... and no sidepods?
Not sure where this rumour came from... but I'm not buying it
This tyre wake control thing is actually the flavour of the month fad. Having no sidepods is the more beneficial thing to do.
The tyres already have the winglets above them by regulation. The cars do not have bargeboards any more to turn the air outward.
what they do have are tunnels.. very big tunnels and that's where most of the air that matters will be going.
Removing the side pods reduces lift and provides more high energy flow over the top of the floor and to the rear of the car.
The tyre wake thing only affects drag, doesnt produce downforce and will vary as the front wheels turn.
Tyre wake significantly alters the flow towards the rear for worse. It's not a good idea to leave it unmanaged.
The winglets on top of the wheels and covers help somewhat, but they don't nullify the problem.
If Mercedes doesn't do anything to mitigate the dirty air at least to a certain degree, it won't matter how much free space they have on top of the floor. If the dirty air hits the rear before the diffuser, it messes up everything.
And the fact that this wake is variable, as you said, changing with amount of steering input. That makes it even worse because not only is there a huge mess, it's an incosistent mess.
It is being overstated. The wake from the front tires had a bigger impact on the older cars with the flat floor and tea tray area.
The flow of air from the tyres further downstream is more outward. The tyre wake more affects leakage of air to the floor and drag. The leakage from the floor was more considerable with a flat floor.
These cars have tunnels so the flow is cupped under the car and sheilded.
Secondly a sidepod shape is not protrusive enough to signficantly alter the tyre wake.
It would literally have to reach out into the shadow of the front wheels.
The is a larger benefit of smaller sidepods.
What ferrrari and aston are doing is trying to reduce lift with the body of the car.
That was their goal more so than anything with tyre wake.
A flat topped sidepod has better pressure recovery after the air passes downstream of the radiator inlets.
Ferrari have been playing with this concept for years. However the balance of not starving the air flowing along the lower parts of the car to towards between the rear wheel and gearbox is usually compromised.
They now have this curved shape on the edges of the top of the sidepod to create a vortex that curls inward and brings air downstream.
I dont have the time these days to do the cfd and all my images of cfd on older cars are deleted as i was using image bucket back then.
But long story short. Going with a cigar shaped car and a big expansive floor and a few gurney flaps to build pressure on top of the floor will reap a lot of rewards.
