F1technical.net

hi, I"m just new here, I'm wanna know how f1 aerodynamics works. could you give me something to read about or a book or website that pertains about f1 aerodynamics. its hard to understand.

You cannot learn how aero works by just reading a book or a website. I've been interested in aero (unprofessionally) for 15+ years and still learning new things.

Start simple, Google is your friend to grasp the basics.

http://www.f1technical.net/articles/10

I am not an aerodynamics expert, just an engineer in a different but highly technical field. Most books that are serious on a technical subject matter typically give a couple of pages on general concepts and then quickly develop into deep theory, mathematics and the physics. Enough to bore you to tears unless you are actually studying it at college.

I hope their might be a true aero engineer that can reply and dispel my thoughts. There is a Holy Grail written by Adrian Newey that can be purchased on Kindle. I would buy that

are aerodynamics in planes and f1 same?

nic08 wrote:are aerodynamics in planes and f1 same?

I'm very much inclined to say no, even though both start from the same basic principles. To get a basic grip on aerodynamics, you best start with aerodynamics in aviation since a F1 wing is very much an airplane wing upside. However, F1 branches completely off once you start looking deeper.

nic08 wrote:are aerodynamics in planes and f1 same?

yes and no ....

aerodynamics in planes are essentially 2 dimensional
because planes are things that need efficient lift eg drag must be only a tiny % of lift eg 2-5%
so they must have minimal seperated flow (vortices)

F1 aero includes much 3 dimensional flow
because F1 needs to maximise downforce almost regardless of the price paid in drag eg drag is a large % of downforce eg 20-50%
so they have a lot of seperated flow

also planes are generally bigger and faster
(ie the Reynolds numbers are bigger, the air behaves a bit differently)

graham.reeds wrote:You cannot learn how aero works by just reading a book or a website. I've been interested in aero (unprofessionally) for 15+ years and still learning new things.

Pretty much this. Books might give you direction, but in the end it pretty much comes down to experience. It's trying things out for yourself and see what works and doesn't work.

"How aerodynamics work in F1" is kind of a vague question.
Aerodynamics work the same everywhere, in F1, in aircraft, in helicopters, whatever. Air (or any gaseous fluid) will do the same things given the same conditions.
If you mean "how aerodynamics are utilised in F1?" Well, many things. An F1 car is a system so it's not like you can bolt on the wings that produce the most downforce with good DF/drag characteristics and expect to have the best car on the grid. The front wing and maaaaaaybe the airbox inlet (the hole above the driver's helmet, where the engine receives the air to burn the fuel with) are pretty much the only parts of the car that receive undisturbed flow, and that is when nothing else (read: another car) is in front of our car. Let's put that aside for a minute. So everything else, the floor, the rear wing, the radiators, the bargeboards etc. are receiving flow that was disturbed/worked by some other part of the car. Engineers don't use the airflow just for creating downforce, it is also an important tool for cooling. The airflow into radiators and the brake ducts are important in the cooling performance of those.

As I said, almost all parts of the car operate in disturbed air, therefore it is important to "set up" the airflow for other parts in order to maximise the performance of each part. Vortices are known to be used to shield the airflow from the wheels and to reduce the amount of air leaking into the floor-ground area.

The increasingly tight aero regulations have pushed engineers into chasing every disturbance in the flow to maximum effect.

A nice basic book is Simon McBeath's "Competition Car Aerodynamics". It will give you an overview of the basics with some nice detail too.

Just_a_fan wrote:A nice basic book is Simon McBeath's "Competition Car Aerodynamics". It will give you an overview of the basics with some nice detail too.

This.

One of the better papers I've read is Ground Effect Aerodynamics of Race Cars by Zhang, Toet (former head of aero at Sauber), and Zerihan (former aero team leader at Mercedes). It manages to strike a pretty decent balance between incisiveness and accessibility, and it covers the whole car.

Learning aerodynamics over the internet willbe as effective as learning medicine. Will lead to a lot of misconception.

One needs to get the basics first, like a solid physics and math foundation and fluid mechanics theory.

It depends what your desired outcome is. If you just want an idea of what the bits on the car do then the internet will be fine. If you want to get some form of qualification then, yes, you need to get the basics down first.

To continue your medical metaphor, you can learn some basic first aid information from the web.

If you're looking for a quick "go-to-guide" book on aerodynamics in Motorsport, I would recommend getting Competition Car Aerodynamics by Simon McBeath. It gives a brief introduction into almost all types of aerodynamic devices and theory in not too difficult to read language. He also gives simple simulation results which show you to see what he means. A very good book in my opinion.

Another one is Race Car Aerodynamics by Joseph Katz. It is a little bit trickier to get through than the above one when new to the subject I found, but is a well known and respected resource for racing aerodynamics.

If you're after more "substantial" and in-depth analysis of the various aerodynamic phenomena present in Motorsport, check out my Vyssion Scribd account with over 150 papers and journal articles relating to the field.