High CL airfoils

[Speed_Demon]

Hello everyone,

I have been looking into, researching airfoil profiles and thought ask here would be as good a place as any. I've found a interesting site (http://airfoiltools.com/) that allows you to comparison airfoil designs to each other (CL/CD, CL/AoA, CD/AoA, CM/AoA) . It also give a list sorted by best L/D at different RE# (50k, 100k, 200k, 500k, 1M)

My questions are:

1. Does anybody know of some airfoil profiles that are commonly used in road racing?

2. Form what I've found S1223 seems to have the highest CL for a single element in the < 1M RE. The website above doesn't allow airfoils to be sorted by max CL...so does anybody know of any other with a higher CL?

3. Does any body know of a common Multi-element design or profiles that are commonly used? For example using a whitcomb-iL for the main wing and a GOE 464 or Eppler 379 for the second element.

Thanks in-advance for any info/link.

[Speed_Demon]

I guess no one has looked at airfoil profiles or made wings before?

[bill shoe]

I have not made wings before.

The wings on racecars like F1 are typically far removed from being isolated profiles. Rear wings are very narrow and so have huge end-effects. They also operate in the draft of the rest of the car. Front wings operate in strong ground effect at a low but inconsistent ride height. Also, a major function of front wings is to manipulate airflow so aero elements further aft on the car work better.

Race car wings are in some ways very inefficient because the rules force them that way, but on the other hand the level of detailing and ingenuity at overcoming the limitations is at a higher level than you'd see on an aircraft, simply because aircraft don't have the same severe restrictions.

[Robbobnob]

Scarbs wrote an interesting article with regards to a Reb Bull rear wing Profile http://scarbsf1.com/?p=4302

One thing to bare in mind is that the aerofoil profiles are very dependant on the approaching streamlines to the leading edge, and thus the front wing will be very neutral as it is primarily working in ground effect. However the rear
wing will have a slight down wash coming over the engine cover and thus the leading edge profile will be shaped accordingly.

I am curious as to whether formula 1 teams use iterative CFD to shape the profiles rather than using specific profiles. As mentioned above the end plate effects will vastly influence the aggressiveness of the camber etc that can be employed vs the main plain in the middle of the wing.

[bhall II]

From my observations, it's tough to make any sort of comparisons because they're so different. There's just not a whole lot in common between a freestream airfoil and a race car wing...

[andylaurence]

The profile of a rear wing is not constant. Whether that's from automated iterative development, I don't know. I'm currently photographically cataloguing the Marussia wind tunnel models, starting with the rear wings.
http://themarussiacollection.wordpress.com

[coaster]

Probably worth noting the heavy camber of the airfoil, most for aircraft are more neutral and rely on the control surface (flap, aileron, elevator).
I would be willing to bet this foil would be one of 100's they tried out.

[Greg Locock]

Bear in mind that many if not most if not all motorsports airfoils are operating fully stalled. Max Cl is the game if there are any restrictions on wing size.