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Captain Ahab Jr Captain Ahab Jr is online now
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Just read this, it could be a huge problem for Mercedes at Zandvoort this weekend with it's twisty layout and banked corners...

https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article.oil-pressure-issue-hampers-mercedes-on-first-day-of-test-2.5Fw6ZGlrVU7GfW1UUbdod2.html

F1 oil tanks are incredibly complex, I've designed a few and it's not the easiest part to get right. The tank is a carbon fibre bonded assembly, a 3-D jigsaw of complex shapes ie internal pipe work, swirl pot/pots, baffles, electronic oil level sensor, all built into a complex and compromised shaped tank that tightly hugs the contours of the front of the engine.

The tank is tested on what is called a 'rodeo rig', the oil tank is tilted at various angles at various oil levels to simulate high G corner loading to check there are no pressure drop outs from oil hanging up away from the outlet.

What works on the rodeo rig doesn't always work on the track as it can be quite difficult to simulate real world track conditions

There are two lines of thought on the best approach to the internal design of the oil tank, first is to have enough baffle plates in the tank it slows down any slosh long enough to keep the outlet constantly submerged or to aim the deaeration swirl pot outlet flow directly at the tank outlet, sort of like aiming a tap at a plug hole

Either way if Mercedes have an oil tank starvation problem they won't be able to modify the oil tank in time for the race. Best they can do is simulate the track conditions back at the factory on the rodeo rig and then come up with a strategy to try and manage the problem

Will be interesting to see if it affects their race weekend
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Old 09-04-2021, 02:30 AM
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