An Analysis of the Aerodynamic Performance of Formula One Racing Vehicles using a Tow Tank

The objectives of this project are to design a statically determinant load cell mechanism for a prototype tow tank ultimately culminating in the testing of the aerodynamic performance of a Formula One racing car model. This paper also serves as a proof of concept for force data collection for a full-sized tow tank being developed by Isabella All [8]. The project includes the design and construction of the load cell mechanism which utilizes a load cell to measure the force in a specific member of the mechanism which is then used to determine the semi-lift and drag forces for a given test model. For this specific project, a model of the front-end of an F1 racing car was used for data collection and analysis. It was found that for a short period of time within each test run, constant force data was able to be collected from the load cell which could then be transformed into semi-lift and drag force data. Ultimately, the drag coefficient acting on the model was found to be in the range of 0.9 to 1.3 which somewhat falls in line with the estimated values of 0.7 to 1.0 [1] for F1 racing vehicles. Although the final data collected may not be entirely accurate due to errors discussed in the paper, the ideas presented in this project can be fully realized with some minor changes and adjustments.