Can somebody explain what is downforce?
In: Technology
Do you mean like down force that’s applied on to cars in racing if so the body of a car is shaped so that as the wind passes over it actually pushes the car down
It is the opposite of lift in airplanes.
Due to the shape of the wing, the air will move quicker on one side of the wing than on the other. This creates a vacuum and pulls a wing up and the airplane with it.
With racecars that same wing is basically just mounted upside down. So where it sucked the plane upwards earlier, it will suck (or force) the car down in this case: downforce.
Have you ever stuck your hand out a window of a moving car? The wind that makes your hand move up and down? That’s downforce.
Next time you’re a passenger in a car on the highway stick your hand out the window. Hold your hand flat with the palm facing the ground. Now tilt your hand slightly either pointed up or down in the air flow. You’ll notice that tilting up causes the air to push your hand up, and tilting down causes the air to push your hand down. What you are seeing is “angle of attack” basically, what angle is a wing relative to the air flow. Plane wings use a positive angle of attack to create lift. Flip the wing over and keep the angle of attack negative, and you have downforce.
Downforce is the opposite of lift, the force that keeps planes in the air.
Racing cars are equipped with upside down airplane wings that instead of helping the cars fly they instead force the car into the ground. This makes the cars more stable and improves grip for acceleration and braking.
Without downforce a suitably powerful car would just fly off the track and crash.
Downforce in the racing industry refers to the downwards force generated by aerodynamic flow that is essentially negative lift of an airplane wing (with lots more detail and functions other than just downforce). It pushes the vehicle towards the ground, creating more friction which means it grips better at a cost of slightly increased rolling resistance.
As to why generate downforce, that would be a much longer story, so do let me know if you want something that’s much more than a simple ELI5 answer.
In addition to the other answers… Since downforce uses the air to push the car down onto the track it actually slows down an F1 car when it’s travelling in a straight line. However, it massively improves how quickly the car can go around corners since it ‘sticks’ the car to the track to prevent it from sliding sideways.
When watching F1, you may hear the term ‘DRS’. This stands for ‘Drag Reduction System’. When drivers turn it on, it removes some of the downforce on the car which makes them go faster in a straight line but makes it more difficult to go around corners. They are only allowed to use it in certain situations, and makes it easier for them to overtake a car they are chasing.
For what it’s worth, downforce and lift are the same thing just the direction the force acts is different i.e. “up” vs “down”
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