Aerodynamic effect on spinning wheel?

[wizeguy]

All of the pictures and video clips I've seen of F1 cars in the wind tunnel show the airflow over a stationary car.

Given that when the F1 car is on track the wheels rotate in the opposite direction to the wind flow, what effect does this have on the wind flow/aerodynamics of the car? and how much difference between this and having a "wheel cover" (yep I know it wouldn't be legal in F1... just interested...)

cheers
vin

 

[GregLocock]

I am 100% sure that this has been studied, in fact I'm surprised you could find any modern pictures of F1 cars without rotating wheels, and moving groundplane.

Anyway, yes the rotating wheel has a huge effect.

Papers by Cogotti, Stapleford or Katz will probably cover it in detail, Milliken gives a good overview.



Cheers

Greg Locock

Please see FAQ731-376 for tips on how to make the best use of Eng-Tips.

 

[tmoritz]

I remember a wind tunnel at Cornell where we could replace the bottom of the test section with a "treadmill" upon which the model car would run. One of the faculty members researched the aerodynamic interaction of the car underbody with the moving road surface. I know the SAE race car team used this set-up to test their designs while I was in school.

Also, CPP Wind Engineering has built and is running a large low speed wind tunnel here in Fort Collins. Large enough for testing cyclists and help them reduce their drag. Testing is done on a set of rollers so wind interaction with the wheels/spokes is taken into account.

Regards,

Tom Moritz



Tom Moritz
Mechanical Engineer
US Bureau of Reclamation

 

[sreid]

All the F1 wind tunnels have a moving ground plane.