Analysis of the Impacts of Formula 1 Car Wakes on the Aerodynamic Performance of a Following Vehicle

Newbon, Joshua; Sims-Williams, D.B.; Dominy, Robert

Abstract

This paper investigates the impact of the wake of a Formula 1 geometry on a following vehicle. For the case considered, the vehicle downforce is seen to be reacted by the pressure force on the ground plane, resulting in little net up-wash in the wake despite strong localised up-wash on the centreline. The following vehicle loses drag and downforce, especially front downforce. Using an idealised wake model and parametric variations it is shown that generating a higher proportion of downforce using the rear wing of the upstream vehicle results in less loss of front downforce on the following vehicle.

Citation

Newbon, J., Sims-Williams, D., & Dominy, R. (2016). Analysis of the Impacts of Formula 1 Car Wakes on the Aerodynamic Performance of a Following Vehicle.

• Conference Name: Aerovehicles 2 : Second International Conference in Numerical and Experimental Aerodynamics of Road Vehicles and Trains.
• Conference Location: Göteborg, Sweden
• Start Date: Jun 21, 2016
• End Date: Jun 23, 2016
• Acceptance Date: Jun 21, 2016
• Publication Date: Jun 21, 2016
• Deposit Date: Jul 21, 2017
• Publicly Available Date: Jul 21, 2017
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1146681
• Publisher URL: http://document.chalmers.se/doc/cd0fa3ea-25a2-4d74-912c-1665e1a3445f
• Related Public URLs: http://document.chalmers.se/doc/3cda7308-57d9-46d0-85a5-abc79070190a