I’ve had a few guys ask me to run analysis on the Voltex Type 7 wing as it’s really hard to find CFD data online. Finally, I’ve had some spare time to actually work on this and the results are actually pretty good. The plots also show that there could be significant improvement from better endplates. You can see the pressure leaking out by the small endplates in the surface plots.
The main credit for this has to go to Rick and his beautiful NASA ST4/TT4 S2000. He provides all of the measurements and photos I needed to model up the wing. The analysis is mainly to improve the performance of his car as he gets ready for the upcoming season. I can’t wait to see what the actual track data will show and his impressions.
Also, fair warning, I only worked on the baseline results tonight and decided to post ahead of time. I haven’t started actual endplate development yet, but the hard part is done!
Customer car the endplates are being designed for
First thing I’ll go over is the model generation. I got hand measurements from Rick and tracings of the airfoil, endplates, and mounting holes. With this I generated my 3D model, as seen below.
As for the gurney, a potential customer was very curious if a gurney would be beneficial for this wing. Voltex sells an optional gurney, but does not provide data. Kind of weird if you ask me, but whatever. I couldn’t even find a picture of the product they sell. So what I did was just added a vertical 7mm gurney to the wing.
I guess now I can dive into the numbers. I am going to post plots of the downforce vs. speed/AOA, as well as drag and L/D for the same parameters. I only ran the gurney at 0 AOA, but at the various speeds. The plan was to run more if the results were promising, but I think we can agree that it’s better to just leave it off.
As you can see, the increase of AOA results in a pretty linear increase in the three parameters. The wing is definitely more efficient at lower angles of attack as can be expected. The performance of the gurney isn’t so hot, however. I would pass on that option.
I was surprised the wing produces more downforce than the 9Lives wing, although it is not as efficient.
Here are some other plots of the results, including the cut plots, surface plots, and the streamline.
Cut plot at the center of the wing.
Surface plot of the pressures. I think bigger endplates will serve this wing nicely.
Flow trajectory through the wing.
Sometime in the next two weeks I’d like to be able to release my endplates for preorder. My goal is to be able to reach 10AOA efficiency at 0 AOA with my endplates installed. I have a feeling this wing will react well to trapping more of the high pressure air on top of the wing. It seems like it is leaking out a bit and reducing downforce. I plan on rerunning with the gurney and new endplates as well. The trailing edge isn’t seeing much pressure so maybe the gurney will be more useful with different endplates. Right now it is a little above the endplate itself.
Stay tuned!