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so im doing a project for school and i have access to a milling machine and my teach has a team of us doing f1 drag cars. now i know alittle bit about th downforce principals behind them, but im lacking in the front wing design. i know the side pods (between the 2wheels) need to be shaped in a curve to create downforce and were using solid works to design it out and transfer the g&m codes to the mill..

anyways my group and i don't care if ours isn't the fastest we just want it to look as close to a acutal f1 as we can, and we want the downforce number from the wind tunnel to be good as well.

so is their any tips to front air foil design that i need to know?
and any other tips i might not know about that keeps the f1 cars sucked to the ground?
i don't care if it's f3 design or the older 70's f1 cars, we just want down force numbers!

thanks guys

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AK... You have to be careful here as I am assuming you are not building a full size vehicle. It might help to know what scale (or size) this car would be.

When you scale a wing (F1 cars being basically wings with wheels!) you'll have to radically adjust the airfoil to keep similar numbers to their full size counterparts. You must also keep the wing moving faster in scale than you would have to move it in full size. This had to do with a property known as Reynolds Numbers.

Easiest way to show this would be in a wing comparison. On a full size helicopter the rotor is held up by say a 100 billion air molecules rotating at 800 rpm able to lift 2000lbs. That same rotor profile on my model heli is only held up by say 1 billion air molecules rotating at 2000rpm able to lift 24oz. So to obtain the same lift (or downforce in your case) characteristics you need a much different profile or increased speed or a combination of both. Scale model wings are scale in profile, but not in cross section.

I would suggest you investigate some of the model wing design programs. Winfoil is one I would suggest as some use it to design car spoilers and wind turbine blades. It should do most all you need. It has a descent array of wings in it's library so you should be able to modify some of them to your purpose.

Another suggestion would be to go down to the local hobby store and knowing the general size (i.e. 1/10th scale) of the car you want, find a F1..F3.. model something and some clay and use the wind tunnel to find your sweet spot. The car gives you a basic form and the clay gives you quick results without the milling. Once you have your "car" designed, then get it into ACAD or what ever milling program your using and let the machine do the rest.

You may just have to toss a blob of clay into the tunnel.. turn it up to speed.. and see what comes out. That is after all how they developed one of my favorite planes.. The SR-71!

Good Luck!

KS

edit: if your simply looking for down force numbers. Take any wing and turn it upside down. Wings lift by nature of design and if you invert a lifting wing you get... ta daaaa.. Down force. It is not the fastest due to drag, but you will make numbers!!! All a matter of what you need it to do!

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