Flexible swan neck rear wing

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shelly
136
Joined: 05 May 2009, 12:18

Flexible swan neck rear wing

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In the winter between 1999 and 2000, teams began experimenting with a flexible rear wing mounting that let the rear wing tilt back at high speed, in order to gain top speed. FIA was quick and instated a rule (that is still valid today), prescribing that the rear wing assy has to withstand a certain horizontal force (100kg) and deflect no more than 10mm iirc.

the force acting on the rear wing of course is not horizontal -downforce is around 6-8 tiems bigger than drag: so the loading condition is much different than the proof condition.
The logic explaination for a swan neck rear wing attachment to the beam wing is that it lets air flow more freely and effectively on the lower surface of the wing, which is the most important aerodianmically. But since redbull knows well how to control elastic behaviour of their wings, how long will it take before the discussion on flexy rear wing is on?
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wesley123
204
Joined: 23 Feb 2008, 17:55

Re: Flexible swan neck rear wing

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Afaik teams have been flexing the wing from that time on and on.

2002:
In France, The Rear wing of Irvines Jaguar just broke off as a whole piece on the straight before the hairpin.
In Barcelona, The Rear wing of the Minardi's just broke off, iic this caused a DNS of both Minardi's

2003;
In Hungary, The Rear Wing of Firmans Jordan broke off, causing a huge crash which took him out of the remainder of the season.
In Indianapolis, both Williams teammates had a small collision in the race into T1, Montoya slightly rouched Schumachers rear wing, which caused the whole rear wing to detach, not really normal in such a collision.

2004;
In Hockenheim, The Rear wing profile of Raikkonens just detaches going into T1.

2007;
Red Bull Racing was noticed to have some significant flexing going on on the Rear wing.

I am sure missing a lot here but the point is clear; Flexing is nothing special, nothing new and has been going on for ages now.
"Bite my shiny metal ass" - Bender

bhall
244
Joined: 28 Feb 2006, 21:26

Re: Flexible swan neck rear wing

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I think there's still considerable horizontal loading on the rear wing. That's why teams have to run slot gap separators to prevent them from allowing the flap to flex and close the gap above a certain airspeed, which "stalls" the wing. That issue was brought to the fore as late as 2006 when Ferrari were found to be doing it on the 248F1.

(Incidentally, I think the front wings seriously need to be subjected to a horizontal load test.)

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