Renault R31

[BreezyRacer]

would such a wing create crossflows over the wingspan as the air will undoubtedly be acellerated quite differently from middle to endplate or is it more like the design tries to equalize and take into account endplate influence as well as influence from the car body in front of the wing ?

a simple 1 section wing seems to be quite unsophisticated considering the air cannot be homogene hitting the wing leading edge..

Well, I think we can say from experience that the airflow to the wing these days is pretty consistent across the span. McLaren has used, many times in the past, many curved wing spans precisely for what you state, but even they always revert back to the straight wing sections, and they have one of the fattest asses on the grid (bodywork only .. no reflection on the McLaren staff )

I wonder if by creating vortexes along the wing's mid points they can reduces the end plate vortexes enough to reduce drag overall? It could also have the added benefit of better overall performance in yaw.

[hardingfv32]

Am I correct in believing that once the vortex leaves the wing it is causing drag? How is a second vortex that has left the wing going to reduce drag levels?

Could these curved wings just be an effort to reduce the vortices at the ends of the wings by put the outer sections of the wing at very low AoA?

Brian

[BreezyRacer]

I don't know about the curved wing, except to say that in the final analysis they reverted to a straight wing, so there you go .. the curved wing didn't work as well.

[hardingfv32]

Stay with the curved wing...

Why were the engineers drawn to it to the point of actually building an example?

How could it provide the same downforce with less drag when compared to the straight wing they ended up using.

Brian

[marekk]

I agree with marcush on this one.
Flow to the RW is far from consistent across wing span. If you look at the diff/beam wing/RW combo as one multielement unit, it's obvious that flow is less deflected upwards (and slower) in the middle (due to bodywork's aerodynamic shadow) and near endplates (wingtips are always less efficient), so with this W shape they just try to optimize (in regards to L/D ratio) AoA of RW along the wingspan IMO.
In perfect world this should allow for almost consistent flow on the trailing edge of RW, which means weaker vortexes and less drag for given lift/downforce.
Hard to achieve in real world, but one can have a look at seaguls wings at work in changing wind conditions to imagine how it should be done.

[tikavi]

They propably chosen the higher DF setup(with stright wing) because they are excepting rain.

I just saw Renault mechanics eating cookies... Maybe that's the reason why they're changing wheels so slow

[kalinka]

Interesting video of working FEE on Petrov's car. Now we can see the angle of exiting gases clearly. As for me, it surprises me how much sideways it goes.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6W7nLXoVUA[/youtube]

[HampusA]

Wow that was even wider then previous videos i´ve seen. That was more then a carlength on each side

[i70q7m7ghw]

Yup, they can actually load it up with fruit and use it to splatter other cars when overtaking

[Owen.C93]

Decent tactic for wet getaways though.

[zgred]

[Formula None]

[Formula None]

[Carmack]

How much advantage (if any) has Renault gained by having FEE in wet conditions, as the exhaust is pushing away the water in front of the rear wheels? Any traction gain or am I thinking in the wrong direction altogether?

Cheers!

[hardingfv32]

Are the small holes a common form of brake disc ventilation?

Brian