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Aerodynamic Design and Performance Research of Racing Cars with Adaptive Control of Attitude

  • Body and Safety, Chassis, Heat Transfer, Fluid and Thermal Engineering, Manufacturing, Noise, Vibration and Harshness, Transmission and Driveline, Vehicle Dynamics and Control
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International Journal of Automotive Technology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Aerodynamic forces acting on a racing car will impact its handling, stability, and steering characteristics. Oversteering typically occurs in racing cars with a significant front-end downforce. In the process of racing, the car’s attitude will change, causing a shift in the distribution of front and rear downforce. This, in turn, will impact the car’s handling performance. Therefore, in this study, a set of aerodynamic devices with attitude-adaptive function linked to the suspension is designed to reduce aerodynamic attitude sensitivity. The range of the car’s attitude changes, the adjustment ability of the front and rear flaps, and the reasonable matching relationship between different operating conditions and the attack angle of the front and rear flaps are confirmed. In this work, the matching relationship is achieved through the use of multiple groups of linkage mechanisms. The aerodynamic characteristics of the entire car are analyzed and simulated in the lap speed simulation. Results showed that the installation of the device reduces the center of pressure (CoP) movement during braking by 52%, the aerodynamic resistance of the entire racing car during acceleration by 19.5%, and the single lap time by 1.5%, while also inhibiting the generation of aerodynamic torque during roll.

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Data availability

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, Da Wang, upon reasonable request.

Abbreviations

FSAE:

Formula Society of Automotive Engineers

DRS:

Drag reduction system

CFD:

Computational fluid dynamics

CoP:

Center of pressure

RKE:

Realizable k–ε model

SKE:

Standard k–ε model

Cl:

Coefficient of lift

Cd:

Coefficient of drag

A:

Area, m2

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Automotive Engineering, Jilin University, Changchun, 130022, Jilin, China

    Guoqing Zhang, Da Wang, Fuqiu Zhou & Jining Chen

Authors
  1. Guoqing Zhang
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  2. Da Wang
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  3. Fuqiu Zhou
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  4. Jining Chen
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Correspondence to Da Wang.

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Zhang, G., Wang, D., Zhou, F. et al. Aerodynamic Design and Performance Research of Racing Cars with Adaptive Control of Attitude. Int.J Automot. Technol. (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12239-024-00056-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12239-024-00056-0

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