Race Car Aerodynamics - The Design Process of an Aerodynamic Package for the 2012 Chalmers Formula SAE Car

Journal article, 2013

This paper describes the design process of a full aerodynamic package of a Formula SAE (FSAE) style race car. The meaning of a full aerodynamic package in this context is a front wing, a rear wing and a diffuser; the focus will however be on the wings. The vehicle for which the aerodynamic package is designed is the Chalmers Formula Student (CFS) 2012 FSAE car, but vehicle data logged from the CFS 2011 FSAE car was used during the design phase. This data was used to evaluate how the aerodynamic package will influence the behaviour of the vehicle, both in terms of lateral and longitudinal acceleration as well as fuel consumption, in order to determine whether or not an aerodynamic package can enhance the vehicle performance. The main tool used during the design process was numerical simulations (computational fluid dynamics, CFD) and special attention was paid to post-processing of these simulations. It was concluded that although the resolution of the simulations was relatively low, valuable insights on how the air flows over the vehicle was obtained using CFD. The manufactured aerodynamic package was also evaluated during pre-competition testing using an on-board data acquisition system as well as flow-visualisation tufts.