Tech Talk
Designed to help teams new to F1.
Car Dynamics and the Coasting stage
The F1 car is powered by a C02 cylinder. This has two phases to the race. The first phase is the Force Thrust produced by the cylinder. This equals approximately .4 seconds down the track. The second phase of the race is the coasting phase. The thrust is mostly set, apart from the given variables like drag. So assuming the car is at minimum weight of 55grams and the maximum velocity reaches above 75Klm/H. Our design must focus on the coasting stage.
The Rogue Cylinder theory
Basically, the larger the hole punctured the higher the maximum velocity and the faster the time is over 20metres. We have named this the rogue cylinder theory. Through discussing this with our sponsor, Carlos from EM Calibrations , the hole punctured in the cylinder varies. This is dependent on a number of factors but mainly the C02 cylinder used. It is vital when testing to use REA Cylinders if you want to find your competitive time. Testing these different canisters can produce variations in speeds from as much as 0.3 seconds and hole sizes from 1mm to 1.5mm diameter.
Drag Coefficient
The drag coefficient determines the shapes performance with drag. This can help us in the choosing the initial design shape based on the value given to certain types of shapes. Our streamline design has one of the minimal drag coefficients. Our design is focused on zero lift and zero down force which will be an advantage on the track
Virtual Testing
Track testing days are the best way to evaluate the various car designs. Although this is not always possible and most of our cars when going to race in competition have never been raced. This is overcome by using the virtual testing so we can evaluate the cars Frontal pressure, Drag coefficient, down force and lift. Based on the different car design we would develop a prototype using Inventor. Export the file as an STL file and import that file into the Virtual testing software “Falcon.”