Aero elastic design energy consumption vs drag Trade off

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hollus
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Re: Aero elastic design energy consumption vs drag Trade off

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The front wing compliance tests are made in a rig to which only the nose is attached, without any car or tyres. The teams provide adapters to fit the FIA rams to their wing profiles.
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olefud
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Re: Aero elastic design energy consumption vs drag Trade off

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DaveW wrote:) to lower the mean running height of the front wing.

Your comments on the effectiveness of the RBR front suspension are well made. It should, perhaps, be observed that they probably have a "decoupled" front suspension, very stiff in "heave", but very soft in "roll", and run a "heave" inerter (which, amongst other things, reduces the effective dynamic spring stiffness).
Would the decoupling account for the absence of axial tire oscillations?

DaveW
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Re: Aero elastic design energy consumption vs drag Trade off

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olefud wrote:Would the decoupling account for the absence of axial tire oscillations?
Not quite sure what you mean, but a suspension set-up as described allows (potentially, at least) the front dampers to do their share in controlling both the sprung mass & hub modes.

olefud
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Re: Aero elastic design energy consumption vs drag Trade off

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DaveW wrote:
olefud wrote:Would the decoupling account for the absence of axial tire oscillations?
Not quite sure what you mean, but a suspension set-up as described allows (potentially, at least) the front dampers to do their share in controlling both the sprung mass & hub modes.
In other clips –Push Rod Flutter?- the tires show a pronounced axial oscillation when hitting curbs that is not evident in the above clip. It’s probably differing conditions.

DaveW
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Re: Aero elastic design energy consumption vs drag Trade off

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olefud wrote:In other clips –Push Rod Flutter?- the tires show a pronounced axial oscillation when hitting curbs that is not evident in the above clip. It’s probably differing conditions.
Different car (design), I believe...

riff_raff
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Re: Aero elastic design energy consumption vs drag Trade off

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The concept of aeroelasticity is about how structural responses affect aerodynamics. Whether it's changes in L/D, flutter, etc. Wings on a racecar are no different than wings on an airplane in this regard.

One of the most obvious examples of aeroelastic tailoring of composite aero structures is that used in helicopter blades or wind turbine blades. The composite blade structures used in helicopters or wind turbines have significant amounts of "pre-bend" and "pre-twist" designed into the mould surface geometry. The pre-bend and pre-twist are intended to compensate for the bending and torsional deflections the blade is subject to during operation.
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DaveW
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Re: Aero elastic design energy consumption vs drag Trade off

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riff_raff wrote:The concept of aeroelasticity is about how structural responses affect aerodynamics.
That's the positive way of thinking about the problem. Arguably, life becomes really interesting when the aerodynamic forces affect the structural response, as Ferrari discovered last year.
riff_raff wrote:Wings on a racecar are no different than wings on an airplane in this regard.
You are right, of course, but I think that race car aeroelastics is complicated by the fact that aerodynamic forces are often affected massively by the relative position (& rate of change in position) of the ground plane. The whole vehicle instability known as "porpoising" is an example. F1 cars have exhibited the phenomenon (an oscillation occurring at a frequency of around 7 Hz) at higher airspeeds since ground effect was invented. Today, F1 cars are usually stable, but are sometimes observed to porpoise immediately after the brakes are applied at high speed (I recall seeing an interesting video comparing the response of different vehicles at Turkey, I think). Again, I believe that the last generation of Audi LMP vehicles sported a set vortex generators on the underside of the front splitter (wing) - I would not be surprised if they were there to delay the onset of porpoising.

riff_raff
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Re: Aero elastic design energy consumption vs drag Trade off

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DaveW- Yup, there is definitely some difference between race cars and other aero devices when it comes to aeroelasticity effects. For example, the blades of wind turbines are manufactured with prescribed amounts of pre-bend and pre-twist such that they assume an optimum aero profile when loaded. I have also seen helicopter rotor blades that are designed with a certain amount of pre-wist and structural stiffness along their length such that their AoA and lift/drag is altered with increasing velocity.
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godlameroso
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Re: Aero elastic design energy consumption vs drag Trade off

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But has there ever been any aircraft designed with wings that oscillate, or pivot on an axis like the Red Bull wings?
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DaveW
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Re: Aero elastic design energy consumption vs drag Trade off

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godlameroso wrote:But has there ever been any aircraft designed with wings that oscillate, or pivot on an axis like the Red Bull wings?
Aeroelastic properties have been used to advantage on several occasions (mostly by missiles - I believe the Bloodhound was an early example). Latterly the X-53 was a research vehicle with "active" aeroelastics. None of them have attempted to use flutter, for a couple of reasons: flutter extracts energy from the air (hence increasing drag), and it is dangerous (structural failure usually follows quickly).

I am reasonably sure that the RBR front wing oscillations shown above was not a design objective, but was the incidental result of an oscillating input to a compliant structure that was intended to modify the running height of the front wing at higher airspeeds.

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Re: Aero elastic design energy consumption vs drag Trade off

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Let's say for instance that the Red Bull front wing was oscillating, we would notice it the most on bumpy surfaces going over curbs under braking, precisely when you need the most downforce possible. Not to mention the oscillations could also help re-attach the front wing aero after stalling with DDRS, by extracting more energy from the air. So what if there's a small drag penalty, when the aero gains offset what you lose on the straights.

On long straights there wouldn't be much flutter because long straights are relatively smooth.
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Tommy Cookers
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Re: Aero elastic design energy consumption vs drag Trade off

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DaveW wrote:Your argument is convincing, godlameroso, and your reference is very interesting. The abstract mentions a Reynolds Number of around 2000. Do you think the conclusions would still be valid if the experiment was scaled up by, perhaps, 500?
aren't modern F1 cars encrusted with aero surfaces that only work well at very low Re nos ?
(no wonder the cars look like creepy-crawly dinosaurs)

don't these work particularly badly at higher Re nos ?
(no wonder the cars dump aero as soon as they can, by DRS and not-DDRS and aeroelastic evasion of the rules)

it's a bit like the grotesque 1920s aerofoils
(that were developed in wind tunnels at hopelessly low Re nos and were thereby rubbish on real aircraft, but good on models)

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godlameroso
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Re: Aero elastic design energy consumption vs drag Trade off

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Tommy Cookers wrote:
DaveW wrote:Your argument is convincing, godlameroso, and your reference is very interesting. The abstract mentions a Reynolds Number of around 2000. Do you think the conclusions would still be valid if the experiment was scaled up by, perhaps, 500?
aren't modern F1 cars encrusted with aero surfaces that only work well at very low Re nos ?
(no wonder the cars look like creepy-crawly dinosaurs)

don't these work particularly badly at higher Re nos ?
(no wonder the cars dump aero as soon as they can, by DRS and not-DDRS and aeroelastic evasion of the rules)

it's a bit like the grotesque 1920s aerofoils
(that were developed in wind tunnels at hopelessly low Re nos and were thereby rubbish on real aircraft, but good on models)
Well for one thing F1 cars aren't too concerned with air as a compressible medium, but they are, or should be concerned with air's viscosity as it's a value that changes depending on temperature(exhaust gases, ambient, etc.). At over 240kph the cars generate plenty of downforce but there aren't many turns on the F1 calendar that are taken at such speeds. Maybe less than 4 per track visited. By turns I mean an angled corner that requires every ounce of concentration on the driver's part to make it through as quickly as possible, Eau Rouge does not count as a corner whereas Pouhon does. The point being that for an F1 car to be fast relative to it's competition it has to generate the most downforce possible in the area between 80kph and 220kph as the vast majority of corners are taken in this speed range.

In Australia turns 5, 11, 12 are the only ones taken at over 220kph
Malaysia: 5, 6, and 12
China: 2, 7, 8
Bahrain 5,7, and 12
Spain 3, and 16
Monaco none
Canada none
Silverstone (by far the most) 1, 2, 9, 10, 11, and 14
Germany Schumacher Esses(two turns)
Valencia(idk If they're racing there in 2013) but those two turns in the final sector.
Hungary: 10, 11
Belgium: 10, 15
Italy: none
Singapore: none
Korea: 7, 8, 9, 17-18
Japan: 1, 3 and maybe Degner 1
India: 5, 8-9, 11-12, and 13-14
Abu Dhabi: 2, 3
U.S.: 3, 4, 5, and 16-18
Brazil: 6

Less than 40 turns in the entire year are taken at over 220kph and a lot of it is only possible during qualifying.
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machin
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Re: Aero elastic design energy consumption vs drag Trade off

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I'm a bit late to the topic, but just read through the thread and don't think anyone has pointed out that since Energy is force x distance, once the wing has moved into its deflected position it consumes no further energy whereas the energy savings in drag terms keep on happening as the car travels down the track (the further the better), so a car travelling at constant speed would have no trade-off between aeroelestic energy consumption and drag; since there would be no aeroelastic energy consumption, but lots of drag savings...

The real trade-off with flexy wings is between high speed drag and medium speed downforce; make your wing too flexible and it might not generate much drag at high speed, but it won't produce much downforce in the medium/high speed corners either....
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riff_raff
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Re: Aero elastic design energy consumption vs drag Trade off

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machin,

The aeroelasticity characteristics of an aerostructure do not on their own determine drag losses, nor does elastic strain in an aerostructure directly result in energy consumption. With aircraft wings and control surfaces, aeroelasticity is primarily a concern due to flutter (ie when aerodynamic flows couple with structural response modes in a detrimental way). All aerostructures twist, bend and flex in response to aerodynamic forces. And these structural deflections can be used to advantage if carefully controlled. The deflections can either increase or reduce lift and drag on an aero surface.

Like anything else in nature, there is no free lunch when it comes to the L/D of any aero device. More lift usually means more drag (and energy loss). The ideal situation is an aero device that gives the best L/D efficiency and optimum amount of lift over the total operating conditions of the vehicle. While the tip deflections and reduced AoA in the front wing may result in less downforce from the wing, it may at the same time help the underbody produce more downforce, resulting in a net gain.

The whole situation is very complex and dynamic in nature.
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