Formula 1 2022 Aerodynamics: Floor Fences

[@rolandotillit2867]

The non fence floor and the fenced floor both create a divergence which raises pressure and slows down the flow. Once the tunnel starts constricting the airflow speeds up. The central section where the plank is also generates a fair bit of downforce.

[@rolandotillit2867]

These floor fences are subject to a lot of secondary flow losses, dealing with those secondary flows and their losses will go a long way to improve their performance. These strakes are extremely important to the floor. By creating a high pressure zone at the leading edge, the trailing edge creates a strong low pressure. The high pressure air on the fences is pulled by the moving road boundary layer, and the low pressure high velocity air between the innermost fence and the central body of the car.

[@indopleaser]

hope this series continues. always interested in seeing aerodynamics videos, thanks

[@robertbalu8001]

At 1st I thought fences main job is to "seal" the floor (from wheel wake mainly), but it seems that it's shifting the CoP fwd.

[@Ruios29]

Gaining a comprehensive understanding of the aerodynamic intricacies of the RB18's mid-section solely through pictures may prove to be challenging. It's highly probable that the key to the car's aerodynamic mastery lies in that section. The precise configuration of the rear suspension appears to be flawlessly complementing the aerodynamic setup, further adding to the car's impressive performance.

[@indopleaser]

enjoying this series!

[@andrewmills2729]

Can you please explain your meshing process!!! This video is terrific. Amazing use of OpenFOAM.

[@nelsonphillips]

This mesh was AMR with v2106. I touch on it with the first production car video. The one referencing Airshaper is their case, but it uses the same AMR process. Cell count is around 60-70mil

[@cap7ainskull]

this explains the cuts in the floor , so is the diffuser the main culprit of the porposing ? Compared to the early 80s and late 70s most have similar solutions for the side skirts . Can you do Arrows A2 that car is a mystery .

[@nelsonphillips]

initially it was the main culprit, but teams have found other ways shake their drivers.

[@fam.hunger5244]

Great Video again. Even if i think that the F1 Teams had their vortices in the tunnels reach the diffuser easily. That was pretty much the reason why they designed the fences that way. And Red Bull, well, their whole philosophy is based on a lot of vorticity under the floor and energise the vortices with air from the top of the floor.

[@ivanbastos4963]

As an armchair aerodynamicist i've always wondered if teams could shape the floor edge at the end of the strakes in a convex curve, essentially turning that section of the floor into a wing using all the flow coming from the strakes. Wouldnt it generate some amount of downforce? The new mercedes floor edge wing has something remotely similar, but i don't know if it's there for downforce or flow management. Anyways, i always thought it was an interesting idea, at the very least worth experimenting with. What are your thoughts on that?

[@nelsonphillips]

very limited in that area and the fia were deliberate in that. Teams tried to open that area up a little with a compliance wire which gave them about a cm to work with, better than nothing.

[@doncorleaaron]

Very nice video! But I have a question regarding the pressure plot you presented. Shouldn't there be pressure recovery from the start of the diffuser to the end, how come your end point of the floor has the lowest pressure? It should recover back to around 0 Pa

[@nelsonphillips]

Thanks. The pressure recovery will never go fully back to atmospheric at the end of the floor/diffuser with these cars as the rear wing, particularly the beam wing is so heavily coupled with the floor. This video/model was just to understand the floor fences, which restricted the mass flow of the floor as to reduce the rest of its performance, as seen in the baseline plot. In the next video i improve the coupling of the beam wing and diffuser improving the overall performance of the floor. Then if you see the redbulls diffuser it is still accelerating the air almost at the end of the diffuser, meaning pressure recover is actually behind the car, these cars are doing things differently! My next video, which is being made at a glacial pace, further builds on the understanding that I'm developing of the importance/role of the diffuser. As you can image teams are far more advanced in their understand of the floor, though I wonder if they all fully understand the characteristics of these car...

[@_racingpaddock_]

I didn't understand the last part.

[@owenson2611]

wow nice vid