After the success of the Baero APR custom endplates, I've been asked to repeat the study for Voltex Type 2 / J's Type 1 wings. I first started out by getting a template of the airfoil and endplate from a friend (Thanks Steve!). I used this to create a CAD model ready to be able to start my CFD analysis.
The first thing I wanted to do was analyze the stock wing. This not only gives a benchmark to compare results to but also I was curious how it performed compared to the APR wing. The Voltex airfoil is definitely more efficient, but it does not produce the same downforce as a 3D APR wing, as expected. Below I will plot the surface plot and air trajectory on the stock wing, but I'll summarize the numerical results at the end. All results were done at 100MPH and 0 angle of attack.
Just looking at the surface plot on the leading edge it's obvious this wing will respond well to a more aggressive angle of attack. There is a big high pressure zone that I would want to relocate to the top surface of the airfoil by adjusting the AOA. This will add a little bit of drag but the tradeoff will be worth it.
Next I added my Baero APR endplates to the mix. I really wanted to make the same shape work to be able to benefit from lowering manufacturing costs, but it would not have it. They performed terribly. The Voltex wing did not like the notch at the top and the 12"x12" size was not performing well.
I then started with a base 12"x12" endplate and maneuvered it every which way to get optimal placement. Downforce spiked, but so did drag. The good news is this showed me I was able to scavenge more downforce from this wing. I then began to adjust the shape to be able to keep my downforce but reduce the drag levels. Here are the plots of the final wing design:
The results of the new endplates ended up even better than I expected. Downforce was increased by ~33%, drag by only ~3%, and a whopping ~30% increase in efficiency. Here are the final charts to show a few different results I got. These will be added to my shop very soon!
