Quote:
Originally Posted by JohnD
I think F1 uses full scale and CFD exactly because it is so difficult to scale the results from models
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I think I need a lesson in plain English, as that was what I was trying to say! However, I'm not sure that models have been completely dispensed with, so I didn't want to be quite so emphatic. Clean upper surfaces - i.e. those not subject to turbulence or ground effect - are more predictable in scale models than elements close to the ground or with slots in for example because, as mentioned by JohnD above, by scaling wind speed so that the air behaves as it would at racing speed in terms of compressibility etc meaningful results can be achieved. Once the air is being forced to compress (or expand) at a greater rate by such thing as scaled slots the linearity of predictions goes out of the window.
10mm (or whatever it is under the plank) becoming .83 mm in a 1/12th model, for example, just won't give meaningful results if re-scaled.
I always think of those old war movies with naval battle scenes; the water still behaves like water even though the ships are maybe 300th scale, and the visual effect is so obvious - the "waves" don't look real, plumes of water from exploding shells don't look real. Come to think of it, neither do the explosions, flames and smoke when a torpedo or shell hits a vessel.