People have always been discovering ways to make things travel better and faster through air. Ever since the first man put a sharpened rock on the end of a spear or arrow or made a boomerang come back. Today people understand the concepts of why certain shapes work better. In aerodynamics new discoveries are being made every day. Aerodynamics is often used in sports. New ideas and discoveries can change the way athletes are able to perform. Without aerodynamics in sports, balls would fall faster and cars would go slower.
The importance of aerodynamics has been known throughout most of automobile racing history. In the early days of the Indianapolis 500 cars were built with streamlined bodies. However, engine, suspension, and tire technologies were more important, at that time. Automobile aerodynamics was not studied closely until the early 1960's. Drag reduction is still important, but a new concept has been introduced: production of an aerodynamic down force, which is thought to be more important than drag reduction.
Aerodynamics is essential to wining a race. A race car has to fight the other cars but shouldn't have to fight the air. So the formula one designers used knowledge of aerodynamics to decrease the vehicles fight with the friction imposed by the surrounding air or drag. Also aerodynamics is used to create a shape that will create a strong downward force. Indy cars need this because at such high speeds the tires may not grip the roadway, or at its very worst the air pushing up on the bottom of the car will flip it over.
Due to all these factors pushing the engineers they have molded the modern formula one race car. They designed it to have minimum drag, maximum air flow to the engine, and optimum downward force. The wing like shape of the body accomplishes this. This shape not only looks similar to a wing but it operates similarly. This shape provides a cutting edge to divide up the passing air and a long smooth surface for it to run along.
Why do I Dragster? A question that at first may sound really weird. This question actually asks why would you want to race C02 cars. First, to understand what this is, lets start with the Basics.
Take a look at your car, it probably can only hit eighty on a good day. Then watch the top fuel and funny car dragsters of the National Hot Rod Association who get three hundred miles per hour on a bad day. You would be blown away at the diffrence in power. The pure power and the amount of noise that these cars produce will blow you away. I'm going to inform you on a lot of the amazing facts about the nitro powered dragsters of the NHRA. First, i'm going to inform you on how drag racing started and on how drag racing works, then how the dragsters work. Following that i'm going to explain how the equipment keeps the drivers and workers safe, finally I will explain how the sport is evolving,
Racing has always been about going faster than the next driver. It was about trying to beat course records and lap speeds. But if Tony George has his way, all course speeds will be reduced due to switching from turbo Indy V6 engines to normally aspirated V8's. The result is less horsepower, thus slower speeds. Records would never be broken, and the sport would lose some of its appeal. Racing has always been a strive to go faster; there is no real reason to change it now. One of Tony George's justification is that the sport would become safer. That is not true. The difference would not be much . The fatality rate for a 230 mph crash, and a 210 mph crash, is not that much different.
Purpose Statement: The purpose of this paper is to divulge in the glorious history of Ferrari.
First of all you will have to understand the principles of flight. An airplane flies because air moving over and under its surfaces, particularly its wings, travels at different velocities, producing a difference in air pressure, low above the wing and high below it. The low pressure exerts a pulling influence, and the high pressure a pushing influence. The lifting force, usually called lift, depends on the shape, area, and tilt of the wing, and on the speed of the aircraft. The shape of the wing causes the air streaming above and below the wing to travel at different velocities. The greater distance over which the air must travel above the curved upper surface forces that air to move faster to keep pace with the air moving along the flat lower surface. According to Bernoulli’s principle, it is this difference in air velocity that produces the difference in air pressure.
The world of technology is ever changing and advancing. With the automotive industry in play technology is constantly surpassing what is available today with what can be done for tomorrow. Technology and the automotive industry go hand in hand with constant improvement to components of cars. Due to technology advancement there is competition within the car industry, especially between American car companies and European car companies. European car companies provide their buyers with innovative variety and revolutionary luxuries. European car technology is superior to American car technology due to their safety, entertainment, and luxury features.
The aerodynamic efficiency is the single most important element in designing a competitive car for professional racing or getting the car model on the front of a Car and Driver or Motortrend. Aerodynamics is the study of the motion of gases on objects and the forces created by this motion. The Bernoulli effect is one of the most important behind car design. The Bernoulli Effect states that the pressure of a fluid, in gaseous or liquid state, varies inversely with speed or velocity and a slower moving fluid will exert more pressure on and object than the same fluid moving slower (Yager). The goal of car designers is to make the air passing under a car move faster than the air passing over the car. This causes the air passing over the car to create more downforce than the air passing under the car creates upforce creating a force additional to the car’s weight pushing the car to the road. Large amounts of downforce are needed to keep light cars grounded at high speed and keep to cars from sliding around turns at high speeds.
Statistic Brain website. (Jan 1, 2014). NASCAR Racing Statistics. Retrieve for this paper Mar 21, 2014 from,http://www.statisticbrain.com/nascar-racing-statistics/
The most broadly used, and most useful, of the speed-reduction mechanisms fall under the category of aerodynamic drag.
Tires are the most important part of race or any car for that mater. (Physics of Racing) After all they are the only thing that is contact with the ground! Tires work by having a high coefficient of friction. Some slicks have a friction coefficient grater then 1! (Physics of Racing) Typical normal street tires have coefficient of about .5 to .6 . In physics we learned that friction was equal to mew times the normal force. Since race cars are typical much lighter then normal cars, they use tricks to increase the downward force on the tires. Some drag tires run really low pressure, other drag cars tune the car to lift the front wheels to put all the weight on the rear tires. Indy cars use a wing to generate down force, and ventures to suck the car to the ground. (How to Make Your Car Handle)
Wings create lift for the upward force of an airplane. A great example of how this happens is sticking your hand out of a car window driving down the freeway. The force on your flat palm causes a force that can lift your hand up or down by changing the
A winglet, like everything else on an airplane, represents a compromise between numerous factors, including, cost, structure and performance. A winglet is a wing tip extension, its purpose to improve aerodynamic efficiency. “The airflow around winglets is complicated, and winglets have to be carefully designed and tested for each aircraft.” (How Things Work: Winglets). The invention of the winglet allows a reduction in drag acting upon the aircraft by converting the airflow at a wingtip into a forward force, rather than an upward force. The size, shape and angle of which a winglet is mounted to the wing, depends on the aircraft type and size. A winglet improves the overall performance of the aircraft and is beneficial to the aviation industry in that, the aircraft will have an improved fuel economy, a reduced need of engine maintenance checks, the ability to carry a greater payload and will be better for the environment.
However motor sport is more than just racing around to a finish line, the goal of motorsport is to push the limits of the technology we already have to further benefit us. How is Formula E different from any other motor sport? Formula E exclusive races on streets. This means that all the cars racing are street legal, the cars race around large urban cities around the world such as London, Los Angeles, Bangkok, etc. Gas powered automobiles are one of the leading causes of pollution, this is evident in countries such as China or even the United States. According to the official Formula E website, they claim in the next 25 years contribute to the sale of 77 million electric cars, four billion barrels of oil saved, and 25 billion Euros in savings from health care. ("Introduction - Official FIA Formula E
Formula One Racing Formula One racing, or F1, is known to be the most prestigious type of auto racing in the world. Unfortunately, in the United States F1 racing is not nearly as popular as other motorsports such as Nascar. On a typical Sunday afternoon if one were to flip channels on the television, Nascar would most likely be airing on a major station. Furthermore, if one were to watch the race he
In my undergraduate years, I have acquired a strong background in the fundamentals of basic mechanical engineering, having studied subjects such as Strength of Materials, Thermodynamics, Fluid Mechanics, Heat and Mass Transfer, Design of Machine Elements and Automobile Engineering. Whilst pursuing my diploma & degree courses, my interest for Automotive Engineering grew even more having learnt more on the different types of internal combustion engines, their configuration and importance. However, what I lacked was a practical understanding on these core areas of Automotive Engineering. To gain a better understandi...