Aerodynamics Fundamentals: Front Venting
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Front Venting
03.02
| 00:00 | As we discussed in the front splitter module, a car's wheel wells are essentially the exits to the expansion from the front diffusers. |
| 00:07 | Anything we can do to lower pressure within the wheel wells will result in the front diffusers being powered up, hence the front splitter powering up and more downforce being the net result. |
| 00:17 | The key ways to reduce pressure here are to stop any unwanted air getting in and vent any excess air out. |
| 00:24 | The first thing to consider is the front bumper and cooling. |
| 00:27 | Many modern cars have factory coolers that exit into the front wheel well. |
| 00:32 | This can be very detrimental to splitter performance, as the wheel well is getting filled up with low energy cooling air instead of air that's being drawn out from the front diffusers. |
| 00:41 | Ideally, we want to direct air from these coolers either out the sides of our bumper or up through the hood. |
| 00:47 | The same goes for any air coming from the engine bay. |
| 00:50 | We want to seal it out from the arches as much as possible to maximize the underfloor performance. |
| 00:55 | This also applies to any openings on the front bumper that aren't required and are bleeding air into the wheel arch, like cosmetic grilles and openings. |
| 01:04 | They need to be blanked off and smoothed where possible, which will also have the benefit of reducing drag by smoothing the car's body. |
| 01:12 | Once we've done what we can to keep air out, we then need to work on extracting what's left. |
| 01:17 | The most effective way of doing this is to cut out as much as we can behind the wheel arch below the wheel top, and then bend and curve the area we've just cut away to provide a nice smooth transition for the air out of the arch. |
| 01:31 | If we're looking for a slightly less extreme and marginally less draggy solution, the bottom of the arch is typically far more sensitive than the top, so focus your cutout and smoothing down there. |
| 01:42 | On most cars, if we have a sufficiently large cutout here, we shouldn't need much venting above the wheel, however there are some rule sets where that isn't an option. |
| 01:50 | If venting the rear and lower guard isn't an option, then we'll have to consider vents on the upper guard. |
| 01:56 | There are many off-the-shelf louver options available here that will allow air to be vented from these regions and improve splitter performance. |
| 02:03 | However it is worth noting that any air vented here will negatively impact rear wing performance. |
| 02:09 | The losses from inside the arch stay high and hit the outboard portion of the rear wing, so we should expect to lose a bit of rear downforce with this approach. |
| 02:18 | Consequently, we can see that keeping the venting lower down will generally speaking put us in a better position. |
| 02:23 | Let's quickly summarise what we've covered. |
| 02:26 | To improve front splitter performance, reducing pressure in the wheel wells is key. |
| 02:31 | This can be achieved by preventing unwanted air from entering, such as redirecting cooling air from the front bumper or engine bay and venting excess air out, preferably lower in the arch. |
| 02:42 | Cutting out sections behind the wheel arch below the wheel top is an effective way to allow airflow out of this region. |
| 02:50 | Venting higher up may improve front downforce, but can negatively affect rear wing performance, so keeping the venting low is usually more beneficial on most cars. |
