Advanti Racing Wheels and the Areas of Research for the Improvement

The primary goal of the design was to arrange the elements of the advanti racing wheels structure in a correct and space-conscious manner, given that the four racers who will pilot the car are of varying height and build. The anthropometric measurements of all four racers were used to create the chassis model. The correct joint position and chassis ergonomics directly impact racing car steering and, more importantly, safety.

The main hoop, the front ring, and the bulkhead are the cornerstones of chassis safety:

• The front shock absorber is located on the front bulkhead. This is one of a racing car’s main passive safety features, designed to protect the driver if the vehicle is hit from the front.
• The main hoop protects the racer if the car flips. Its height is determined by the position of the tallest member of the racing team’s head concerning the topmost part of the hoop.

Historically, the airflow around exposed racing wheels has received little attention, owing to the technical difficulties associated with a rotating wheel in contact with a moving ground plane, which has usually allowed only a cursory analysis of the flow field. In the separated region, the flow field is highly complex, dominated by three-dimensionality and inherent flow unsteadiness. Exposed wheels contribute significantly to wheel drag, which can range between 35 and 50 per cent of total vehicle drag. The drag force acting on the wheel is relatively easy to measure using a conventional load cell, though there are inconsistencies between published data.

However, quantifying the lift force is far more complicated because separating the aerodynamic lift force from the varying wheel-to-ground reaction force is difficult. Quantifying the wheel lift force is critical in racing cars, where the magnitudes of the aerodynamic forces are proportionately higher than in passenger cars. Any source of confusion in the experimental assessment of the overall lift force magnitude and front-to-rear lift force distribution could have severe consequences for the vehicle dynamics and overall performance of the racing car.

Area of Research:

• To create the necessary experimental techniques and analysis methods to examine the wheel flows thoroughly. Specifically, create a non-intrusive radio telemetry system that allows surface static pressure data to be transmitted to a local laboratory from a rotating or stationary (non-rotating) wheel.
• To improve current flow physics understanding associated with exposed racing wheels and any relevant flow features. This will be accomplished by combining new and existing technologies for experimentation and computation.
• To investigate the use of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) to predict the flow-field around exposed racing wheels, both quantitatively and qualitatively, using a commercial CFD code and relatively limited hardware resources.

The geometric condition of the wheels relative to the ground is one of the most challenging problems in predicting the aerodynamic performance of open-wheel racing car configurations, either experimentally or numerically. A stationary wheel elevated above the ground, or a rotating wheel on the floor will produce less lift than a fixed wheel in contact with the environment. As a result, different corrections for each of these geometrical arrangements must be developed to predict (numerically or through wind tunnel experiments) actual road/track conditions. The aerodynamics of the entire F1 racing car is highly complex, with most parts influenced heavily by interactions with other vehicle features.

Conclusion:

As a result, it is preferable to evaluate the entire vehicle experimentally. In the case of advanti wheels flows, where current knowledge is limited, it is critical to fully understand the wheel in isolation from the rest of the car before attempting to analyse the wheel-bodywork interaction. As a result, the motivation for research work by ‘Tuner Stop’ is to advance the current understanding of wheel aerodynamics, which will lead to routine integration of the wheels into the experimental assessment of the aerodynamics of the entire F1 racing car, ultimately assisting racing car aerodynamicists in the design and set-up of racing cars.