The aerodynamics of a car (calculating downforce)

[casper]

Summary: basically i am trying to find out if there's anyway to calculate the diffrence in pressure underneath and above the car so i can calculate the downforce

Hello I am doing a project about aerodynamics of a formula 1 car
when i wanted to do calculations of how much downforce each aerodynamic component creates i ran into a problem
Becouse every single website just said that it all came down to making sure the pressure underneath the car was lower then the pressure above the car
but how do you calculate how low the pressure under the car is becouse i can't find it anywhere
the formula I am using to calculate the downforce is
F = (delta)P * A
F = downforce in Newtons
(delta)P = the diffrence in pressure in pascals
A= Surface
But since i have no way of calculating the diffrence in pressure I am kind of stuck

Thank you in advance for any help

casper

 

[boneh3ad]

Yes you can calculate such things, but it's an extraordinarily complicated process. Consider that McLaren's F1 team pays dedicated aerodynamicists £50,000+/yr to look at things like this, so doing it in any detail as part of a project is probably not very tractable.