Wet screen shot thumbs Spa 2010 race & FP1 - many megabyte!!

[WhiteBlue]

I was wondering if anyone had captures of the vortices being shed behind the rear wings during the race from the side. During the race I saw a few instances where you could see 1 or 2 meters of the vortices visible behind the cars from a side view. I asked earlier in this thread, but no response. If there's a good place I can do the searching for these pictures myself, point me to it and I'll do the work to look through them, but I'm not sure where to go for good screen captures like WhiteBlue and others have been posting. Thanks!

I drop some stuff in here and you can look what you like.







Up to here was in the race. Unfortunately it never got as soaking wet as in FP1. So the following pics are from practise.

[EricB]

Thanks WhiteBlue! I've been looking for the shots of the McLaren suspension detail!

[andrew]

Would a link to a series of pictures on Imageshack or some other web based image host not have been better?

[agip]

A totally off-topic question... why the Ferrari's on-board cameras don't show us the driver's helmet?

Its related to the camera position, zoom or what?

[mep]

Have you guys noticed this:



Uploaded with ImageShack.us

Brilliant shot.

[marcush.]

not CFD real world flow visible... I saw that ....is this the wake of the camera housing? for that it looks too deep but what else could it be? it looks like the transition from mandatory middle section to the wing downforce producing elements.

[mep]

I think this is the vortex sealing the floor.
You can see it passes trough the sloped side pot and the vane.
I don't think this happens by accident. Its designed like that.
The edge of the splitter/floor seems to guide the vortex to exactly that direction.
Possible it depends on car speed to hit exactly trough the vane and side pot.

I think those free edged of the front wing produce the vortex.
Normally you don’t want a wing tip like this because it creates a big vortex.
On airplanes they add winglets to prevent this.
This vortex must be massive to be so easily to spot. Similar size than the ones we see on rear wings.



Anyway I wonder why we don't see it on the other side.

[WhiteBlue]

Spa is a clockwise turning circuit. The vortex is different in intensity at different places. I havn't checked where it is most intense but I guess it must be fast, wet and right turning.

[WhiteBlue]

Would a link to a series of pictures on Imageshack or some other web based image host not have been better?

I have deliberately used a dedicated thread and thumb nails so that people with low band width do not get bogged down in the Spa thread. I also included a warning in the title.

If you go to the effort of making those shots and getting them hosted you want them somewhere where some people actually see them instead of a link.

[Morteza]

Wow! Thanks White Blue =D> Those pics are amazing, I really thank you for sharing them with us

[mep]

Spa is a clockwise turning circuit. The vortex is different in intensity at different places. I havn't checked where it is most intense but I guess it must be fast, wet and right turning.

The vortex is there all the time we normally just don’t see it. The car running clockwise or counter clockwise has absolutely no effect on the vortex. The rotation direction of the vortex is defined by the wingtips. You have low pressure below the wing and high pressure above it. On the edge of the wing those pressures want to compensate each other causing air flowing from below the wing to the upside and creating a vortex.

So when you look from the front of the car to the left side you will see a vortex rotating counter clockwise. On the right side you will have one rotating clockwise.

Such a vortex is like a mini Tornado. In the centre they have low pressure. This is used to seal the floor. It’s very impressive how they guide it to the floor edge especially without any bargeboards or turning vanes. I guess this is really hard to achieve and demands lots of fine tuning of the front wing edges. I also think the edge of the splitter helps a bit. You notice the little step on it? We must take into account that the actual vortex can be bigger, we see just the centre core. It’s a nice piece of engineering art.

To make the vortex visible it’s not necessary to have a wet track. Hot air with high air humidity can also make vortices visible. Conditions you might have in countries like Malaysia. In the vortex the pressure drops and with the drop in pressure follows a drop in temperature. Air can take up a special amount of water as air humidity. The amount of water depends on the temperature of the air. Hot air can take more. So when the temperature drops the air will release the water what causes some kind of fog. This makes the vortex visible.