Alpine A522

[godlameroso]

Best Floor pics. Although helping with porpoising, I can't help but imagine that we're losing DF by releasing air from underneath the floor like this.

https://motorsport.nextgen-auto.com/pho ... ar/648.jpg

https://motorsport.nextgen-auto.com/pho ... ar/649.jpg

But the floor fences release air from underneath the floor to a far greater extent than that ever could. The more air you push out of the floor, the more air you're drawing in. The cut outs help guide air under the edge wing. The strong low pressure that forms at the throat of the tunnel creates a strong acceleration of air into the diffuser. The edge wing can be turned into a nozzle that shoots air into the mouse hole opening flanking either side of the diffuser. The jet of air will combine with the jet of air coming from the throat and the plank area and further reduce the back pressure. The beam wing then accelerates the jet coming from the diffuser further reducing back pressure.

The noise that comes from the low pressure jet of air billowing into the diffuser creates noise, quarter wave tubes like these cutouts work well to suppress noise, as does lowering the back pressure of the diffuser because then the transition from the throat to the diffuser isn't as severe. You'd also reduce drag that way.

The diffuser is limited in its outwash potential but the beam wing has a lot of freedom, as does the rear wing. In the previous generation cars, the height limit of the diffuser was overcome by adding outwash to the upwash, the rules don't suddenly change even if the regulations make it more difficult. It just means you have to get more creative. The rules make upwash easy, but outwash difficult.

Say for instance the diffuser fences, they have to be pretty much straight. cambering it inward near the ground would create more upwash and outwash and lower floor back pressure.

If the rules allowed we'd see diffusers shaped more like this, curved inward at the end of the fences.

[Blackout]

Yes the car is definitely relying on the floor edge gurney to generate load in that area.
They're using the front of that undercut to turn airflow outwards (outwash) towards that gurney flap (yellow) to power it up, so it can also enhance air extraction from below the floor.
RB was doing a similar thing IMO in the first iteration, but with less agressiv edge wing/curl.


As you can see the undercut is pushing that flow sideways, whereas the new RB sidepods moved away from that design and pushed the undercuts widest part backwards and inboard for a more streamlined shape



And those sidepods are wider than needed. They have plenty of empty space around the radiators and they are using that flap (green arrows) to seal the void between rad and bodywork, so the car can have much tighter sidepods if it wants.



Pics from Nextgen-auto and Motorsport images

[godlameroso]

Yes the car is definitely relying on the floor edge gurney to generate load in that area.
They're using the front of that undercut to turn airflow outwards (outwash) towards that gurney flap (yellow) to power it up, so it can also enhance air extraction from below the floor.
RB was doing a similar thing IMO in the first iteration, but with less agressiv edge wing/curl.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FO3LWiYXMAA ... ame=medium

As you can see the undercut is pushing that flow sideways, whereas the new RB sidepods moved away from that design and pushed the undercuts widest part backwards and inboard for a more streamlined shape

https://i.imgur.com/ITPIIJr.jpg

And those sidepods are wider than needed. They have plenty of empty space around the radiators and they are using that flap (green arrows) to seal the void between rad and bodywork, so the car can have much tighter sidepods if it wants.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FO3LYBMWUAI ... ame=medium

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FO3PBcUXoAA ... name=small
Pics from Nextgen-auto and Motorsport images

You can see the edge wing near the rear wheels on the RBR is shaped like a converging duct, converging ducts produce jets of air. You can see that the jet of air is aimed right at that little mouse hole on the side of the diffuser.

It's a much smoother design than the Alpine, which looks boxy and sloppy by comparison.



Look at the sparks, they come from the edge wing, right into the diffuser.



You have to wonder where McLaren is aiming theirs.

[GoranF1]

AUS is usually very telling track. People underestmated that track because is ussualy first race of the year. But Albert park always separates good cars from bad ones.

[godlameroso]

AUS is usually very telling track. People underestmated that track because is ussualy first race of the year. But Albert park always separates good cars from bad ones.

The track is very different this time 'round.

[diffuser]

AUS is usually very telling track. People underestmated that track because is ussualy first race of the year. But Albert park always separates good cars from bad ones.

The track is very different this time 'round.

To me this is the Spain test floor, it got a major upgrade in Bahrain.... not even sure it's legal. The Alpine one is.





This is te best I could find of what it looked like in Saudi. it has no openning at all.

[godlameroso]

AUS is usually very telling track. People underestmated that track because is ussualy first race of the year. But Albert park always separates good cars from bad ones.

The track is very different this time 'round.

To me this is the Spain test floor, it got a major upgrade in Bahrain.... not even sure it's legal. The Alpine one is.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FO3PBcUXoAA ... name=small

Bahrain test.

And still there in Jeddah.

[diffuser]

The track is very different this time 'round.

To me this is the Spain test floor, it got a major upgrade in Bahrain.... not even sure it's legal. The Alpine one is.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FO3PBcUXoAA ... name=small

https://imgr1.auto-motor-und-sport.de/S ... 880318.jpg

Bahrain test.

And still there in Jeddah.

https://www.formulapassion.it/wp-conten ... m-wing.jpg

not sure why Alpine has a Openning there, you typically would want to keep the tire turbulance away from the diffuser.

[diffuser]

To me this is the Spain test floor, it got a major upgrade in Bahrain.... not even sure it's legal. The Alpine one is.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FO3PBcUXoAA ... name=small

https://imgr1.auto-motor-und-sport.de/S ... 880318.jpg

Bahrain test.

And still there in Jeddah.

https://www.formulapassion.it/wp-conten ... m-wing.jpg

not sure why Alpine has a Openning there, you typically would want to keep the tire turbulance away from the diffuser.

Picture is worth more than 1000 words ...

[godlameroso]

https://imgr1.auto-motor-und-sport.de/S ... 880318.jpg

Bahrain test.

And still there in Jeddah.

https://www.formulapassion.it/wp-conten ... m-wing.jpg

not sure why Alpine has a Openning there, you typically would want to keep the tire turbulance away from the diffuser.

Picture is worth more than 1000 words ...

https://motorsport.nextgen-auto.com/pho ... ar/112.jpg

I've already explained why you put openings there. I'll repeat myself, if you jet air into the diffuser, you pump more air out of the diffuser. The main flow acceleration happens at the throat upstream of the diffuser. If you lower the back pressure downstream of the throat, the flow is accelerated everywhere upstream until choking.

Also the noise that comes from the high speed flow at the throat pouring into the slower flow at the diffuser is the biggest aero induced noise in the car. So by blowing into the diffuser, you lower back pressure downstream of the throat/nozzle. Which means there's a lower difference between the throat velocity and diffuser velocity and as a result less noise, and less resonance, which means less flow disturbance.

[diffuser]

not sure why Alpine has a Openning there, you typically would want to keep the tire turbulance away from the diffuser.

Picture is worth more than 1000 words ...

https://motorsport.nextgen-auto.com/pho ... ar/112.jpg

I've already explained why you put openings there. I'll repeat myself, if you jet air into the diffuser, you pump more air out of the diffuser. The main flow acceleration happens at the throat upstream of the diffuser. If you lower the back pressure downstream of the throat, the flow is accelerated everywhere upstream until choking.

Also the noise that comes from the high speed flow at the throat pouring into the slower flow at the diffuser is the biggest aero induced noise in the car. So by blowing into the diffuser, you lower back pressure downstream of the throat/nozzle. Which means there's a lower difference between the throat velocity and diffuser velocity and as a result less noise, and less resonance, which means less flow disturbance.

I guess it's something to watch and see if Alpine modify the size and shape of that cut out.

[hollus]

This is the Alpine car thread. No more Red Bull cars here, please. Concrete comparisons are OK, of course.

[radosav]

This is the Alpine car thread. No more Red Bull cars here, please. Concrete comparisons are OK, of course.

why isn't possible to post in Alpine team thread, i tried few times but it didn't work?

[Enstone]

Guys here some interesting infos : https://www.bullfrag.com/two-big-proble ... orpoising/

“The good news is that (in Bahrain) we didn’t have it as strong as it was in the beginning,” says the director of Alpine. «We changed some things about the car, not only the height. In our simulations, we couldn’t see that, or it didn’t happen. And it wasn’t really something the designers and aerodynamicists had in mind to pay attention to. It only appeared during the tests.

“This shows that despite all the simulation tools we have, there is nothing comparable to reality. But I think that the more we learn about how to tune the car, the closer we get to a solution».

“And the more you learn, the more you can change the design to solve the problem. Will this happen quickly? I think the worse the problem, the more motivated we will be to fix it.”.

“Well, at Alpine we are not an Alfa Romeo, but I don’t think we are the ones with the most problems”Szafnauer points out, referring directly to the only team that has a car below the minimum weight.

“We are somewhere in the middle. 10 kilos suppose four tenths of a second. That should be a great motivation to shed those ten kilos. And the performance will come because you know it’s guaranteed, but that will cost some money,” admits Szafnauer.

[Blackout]

Here a closer look on the monocoque & its metallic (Titanium?) rollhoop which has hollow U-shaped thin structures. Lightness + strength through relatively complex shapes, thx to 3d printing/additive manufacturing.
It's from "Insiders". (6 minutes and still better than DTS)