F1 » German Grand Prix - Friday free practice (combined times)

@richard...I'll take a guess. They have heat exchangers in both pods, so could be they're sending the HX exhaust out the same body ports as engine exhaust. The high exhaust velocity might draw more flow through the HX's, something like a jet pump. If they need more cooling capacity on one side than the other (additional HX, different sized HX on the left for packaging), the mass flow differs per side. If it does, they would likely size each port cross-section to bring the flows to the same exit velocity. The flow velocity would probably be more important than the mass flow since additional external flow around the body can make up for varying mass flow. Just thinking out loud.

MOTOGP » Huge changes put Hayden 'up front and happy'

Thanks for the posts, soops. Question for you...would a geometry change necessarily mean a frame change, or can it be accomplished purely through suspension adjustment? I'm curious what would have taken so long to try this, but if it's a new frame (i.e., radical geometry change) then that would explain it. 'vaho...I've already opened up my bottle of bourbon to celebrate. Just hope nobody here at work notices.

F1 » Ecclestone to take F1 to Hollywood with big screen movie?

Perhaps they were inspired by Sacha Baron Cohen's gritty portayal of F1 legend Jean Girard in the critically acclaimed "Talladega Nights?" I think an appropriate title to the film, given present circumstances, would be "Dude, Where are my Cars?" but apparently a version close to that has already been used.

ALMS » LMP1 hybrid ready for debut.

So they let them carry a charge in the batteries for the start? I didn't realize that. As for increasing fuel economy during the race...a longer event like Le Mans should exploit small efficiency gains far better than short events like Grands Prix. The increased economy assumption, however, would seem to be dependent on the overall weight of hybrid being the same as or less than a non-hybrid and the rotational inertia of the drivetrain also being the same as or less. That's a lot more equipment to carry, and electric motors and batteries aren't light. Do non-hybrids carry ballast, or do hybrids get a break somewhere else to let them carry the extra weight?

MOTOGP » Ducati’s carbon fibre MotoGP chassis.

Yep, I'm sure it's been tested and documented so hopefully I'll be able to find out more of the details of how they've done this some day. Very interesting subject. Our topic seems to have been abandoned, Tell it, but I've really enjoyed the discussion. Thanks for all your insight. If you don't mind my asking, where did you gain your 35 years of aero mfg experience? I've put in time with Boeing Commercial Airplanes (mostly stress analysis, some design), Lockheed Martin (launch equipment at Kennedy Space Ctr) and some smaller private firms doing launch vehicle and spacecraft design, among other things. Never worked professionally in race engineering, though. Maybe one day.

MOTOGP » Ducati’s carbon fibre MotoGP chassis.

I've learned gobs from all of you on these boards, so it's nice to have a chance to give back a bit. I believe we're mostly talking about the same thing, Tell it,but I'm confused about how they'd bond those materials together with the disparity in thermal expansion properties (about one order of magnitude between aluminum and carbon, so any temperature changes from that at which they were originally bonded will result in a large residual stress between the layers). Prestress isn't always a bad thing, but it might lead to delamination problems. That said, it would certainly toughen the layup (similar to adding Kevlar). Could be a good thing for commercializing the technology.

MOTOGP » Ducati’s carbon fibre MotoGP chassis.

As for the Japanese makers responding...I think it's a bigger deal for Ducati to take on such a new technology than it would be for the big boys. That's what's perplexing me right now - is it an in-house effort or is someone with experience helping them? I'm guessing the likes of Honda and Yamaha have divisions within the company that already have experts on that kind of design and analysis. They also probably have the manufacturing equipment in use somewhere and could shift resources around as necessary...but will they?

MOTOGP » Ducati’s carbon fibre MotoGP chassis.

Tell it - are you sure it's for structural reasons? On the 777 empennage there's a layer of very thin copper mesh bonded in and grounded to metal subframe, but that had to do with creating a ground path for lightning strikes. If it weren't there, then the strikes (I was told) would likely fail the carbon composite skin. It would be interesting to consider metal as a structural layer, though. waz - good point about recycling. I just read that they can't be recycled as high-performance structures but have found use in lower-strength items such as laptop computer cases. Gives new meaning to having a fast computer, eh?

MOTOGP » Ducati’s carbon fibre MotoGP chassis.

It's a complex problem, but there are weight and stiffness advantages to be gained if you get it right. As Tell it pointed out earlier, it's important to know the limitations of your material and choose the right one for the application. For instance, metal is superior at turning point or impact loads into distributed loads without failing catastrophically, so you still see lots of metal at joints in composite structure. I admire Ducati for giving composites a go and am anxious to see how they perform and how others react to it. Again, sorry for geeking-out on everyone but I absolutely live for this s**t. Cheers, everyone, for putting up with me!

MOTOGP » Ducati’s carbon fibre MotoGP chassis.

Similarly, if I have to react a torque I might form a tube and orient most of my fibers at 45 degrees to the long axis in order to react the torque using fiber tension (it's highest strength orientation). I might also leave a few fibers oriented along the long axis to react smaller bending or tensile-compressive loads. The beauty of composites is that I can theoretically give a structure just as much strength or stiffness as I need in any given part by having fibers in the right orientation. With all this in mind, think now of that airbox as structure and how it has to react torsion, bending, shear, tension and compression at different locations and transfer load between them optimally.