Computational Fluid Dynamics Analysis of High Lift, Inverted Airfoils in Ground Effect

Formula SAE vehicles are formula styled (open-wheeled and open cockpit) racecars that are designed to race on an autocross circuit. Highly competitive vehicles in the competition implement aerodynamic devices, which generate negative lift for the vehicle. This negative lift, or downforce, increases the amount of traction between the racecar’s tires and the ground that ultimately allows drivers to turn at faster speeds. Commonly used aerodynamic devices are a front and rear wing; the wing cross sections are defined by configurations of multiple 2D airfoils. This paper focuses on the systematic design of a Formula SAE specific front wing through the comparisons of high lift, inverted airfoils, in ground effect in order to maximize the negative lift coefficient. Five selected high lift, single element airfoils are iterated through multiple angles of attack and the three superior airfoils are iterated through a second study of height off the ground. A third study begins to look at combining the single airfoils into a two element airfoil configuration to further increase negative lift generation

Computational Fluid Dynamics Analysis of Inverted, Multi-Element Airfoils in Ground Effect

Formula SAE cars are formula-styled race cars designed to race on an autocross circuit. The autocross circuit is mostly comprised of turning sections as well as a limited amount of straight sections for passing other cars. Highly competitive cars in the competition implement aerodynamic devices to generate negative lift for the race car. This negative lift, or downforce, increases the amount of traction between the race car’s tires and the ground ultimately allowing the drivers to turn at faster speeds. Commonly used aerodynamic devices are a front and rear wing; the wing cross sections are defined by configurations of multiple 2D airfoils extruded across the wing’s span. This thesis focuses on the research to systematically design the front wing sections of a Formula SAE race car by studying characteristics of high lift, inverted airfoils in ground effect in order to maximize the negative lift. Five high lift, single element airfoils are firststudied at multiple angles of attack from which three superior airfoils are chosen and used in a follow-up study that performs flow simulations of these airfoils at various heights above the ground. A second study aims at combining the single-element airfoils into a two-element airfoil configuration to further increase the negative lift by choosing a flap; the flow fields of two-element configurations are computed at various angles of attack and height above the ground, including the vertical and horizontal gap between the main element and the flap. Based on this study, a two-element configuration with a main element and flap is selected to obtain the maximum negative lift

The Practice of Enterprise Modeling: 6th IFIP WG 8.1Working Conference, PoEM 2013, Riga, Latvia, November 6-7, 2013

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