F1 Cars In The Wet - Airboxes

[v10motorhead]

How do they prevent water from getting into the engine during a wet race? Does any one hv tech. drawings of an airbox?

[Guest]

filter in airbox

[Monstrobolaxa]

Well....I think F1 teams don't worry too much about water in the airbox.....at the temp. the engine is working...the water will evaporate!!!!

If you use any kind of filter I think it will influence the way the airbox works....probably it will reduce the pressure inside the airbox...(and we don't want that to happen do we?)

[v10motorhead]

Considering the way it was rining in Brazil this year, I doubt all the water that entered the engines would have evaporated!....Good suggestion though... but you would have water mixing with engine oil & it wouldnt be a pretty sight..... Filters on the other hand would interrupt with the airflow to the engine..... Doubt you'll be able to get a laminar flow of air with a filter.... theres gotta be somethin else......

[Steven]

hmm.. how could water come into contact with engine oil here??
Air flowing in through the airbox is only used to fill the cylinders with air, in combination of fuel coming from the gas tank.

I can't see how this would interfere with engine oil...

Maybe it's better to have a little water in your cylinders than to filter all incoming air... don't know, one solution may provide a little less loss of power than the other...

[Monstrobolaxa]

.....that is right Tomba....

[walter]

Well, the problem with water in the combuxtion chamber is not that it mixes with oil, that would not happen because water and oil do not mix!

However, water in the combustion chamber can deminish the combustion of the gasses, and suck some power out of the engine. and it takes a sufficient amount of water to flood the combustion chamber of an engine that revs around 17000 RPM. Think about it.

Fact is, water RARELY gets into the combustion chambers because these cars are going fast. Its similar to driving in the rain with your sunroof open (I know it sounds stupid). not much water gets into the interior because of the speed. Similarly in an airbox of a formula 1 car, the water hits the back of the airbox, and gets pushed down and back, and leaving the intake trumpets free of most of the water. Furthermore, the trumpets are slightly elevated above the bottom of the airbox. So, the only way that water would get in is if the car was going really slow

There are many solutions to this problem, and I'm sure that every engine has a slightly different way of solving it.

[Guest]

What about insects that enter the airbox, I mean you see so many of them getting squashed up on the onboard camera!....

[Steven]

Then again, it would be the same a walter sais here.
Bugs are squashed then againt the backside of the airbox, and therefore cause no real trouble to the engine.

Good thinking btw walter

[Monstrobolaxa]

Back from a week at the beach.....

Humm...well.....I don't think that the intake trumpets are in direct contact with the air that comes from the airbox....I've seen teams taking off the airbox and....the is a kind of cover for the intake trumpets...the secret is that the trumpet has hole in specific places in order to have the same pressure on top of at as inside it....so...there is a cover that prevents water and other whings from getting inside the combustion chamber.

I also believe that in 2000 there was a new rule that made teams put the oil "breather"inside the airbox this means that it even makes more sense to cover the intake trumpets...it wouldn't be a good idea to have oil in the combustion chamber.....(we don't want F1's running on diesel!)

http://www.geocities.com/scarbs_uk/Toyo ... tled16.jpg

notice the top of the engine of the Toyota TF-101, it's covered (this pic was taken at a test at SPA and was taken during a routine engine change). It's the only pic I know from the net...but there are a couple in books I have....

[Aerodynamicist#1]

Well there are performance air filters, not the paper sort you find on a road car, but a synthetic foam type. These have a retaining oil sprayed into them, which allows certain particles such as sand to get trapped in the filter. These type of filters are specially designed to smooth the airflow entering the airbox. I am unsure if these are definately used in F1 cars, buts they are used in almost every other form of single seat racing car. As far as water goes, i believe that the air intake would not take much water on board as it is fairly removed from the spray produced by the front wheels etc. Although i know that my racing car sometimes misses when the air filter is wet, so maybe they just change the engine mapping, ask the engine guys on that one.

[PlatinumZealot]

They probably just put some plates in there to divert raindrops..

Or just force the air to go through curve path leaving the raindrops behind.

[The FOZ]

First up, water in the combustion chamber is not necessarily a bad thing.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_injection_(engines)

Having not seen an airbox up close, I can, however, say that the air filter will not stop water from getting in. Rather, it will absorb it, then release it in a finer mist.

Do the airboxes contain baffles? I know production cars do, just to keep the water out of the intake stream.

[EAKMotorsports]

Well water in comb engines not too bad after all in WWII war birds had water injection to gain power to escape in dangerous situation or engage some enemies or to take off.

[riff_raff]

F1 engines use an air filter in the airbox. The filter designs are very low pressure drop and prevent debris (usually tire marbles)that is kicked up from the car ahead from going through the engine.

The purpose of the airbox itself is to take the high velocity airflow coming in and slow it down to create a uniform, high static pressure at the intake runner inlets.

As for moisture in the intake air, it is very beneficial for power, since it acts as an anti-detonant. Even in a heavy rain, the water in the intake airstream will vaporize as soon as it enters the cylinder.