Aerodynamic Forces Acting on a Race Car for Various Ground Clearances and Rake Angles
Computational model was developed to investigate aerodynamic forces acting on a closed-wheel race car. A particular focus was on the effects of ground clearance and rake angle on aerodynamic drag and lift forces. Computations were performed for a steady viscous fluid flow using the realizable k-ε tu...
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Veröffentlicht in: | Journal of Applied Fluid Mechanics 2019-01, Vol.12 (2), p.361-368 |
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Hauptverfasser: | , , , |
Format: | Artikel |
Sprache: | eng |
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Zusammenfassung: | Computational model was developed to investigate aerodynamic forces acting on a closed-wheel race car. A particular focus was on the effects of ground clearance and rake angle on aerodynamic drag and lift forces. Computations were performed for a steady viscous fluid flow using the realizable k-ε turbulence model and non-equilibrium wall functions. The computational results indicate a strong influence of ground clearance and rake angle on aerodynamic loading of a race car. The largest drag force coefficient was obtained for the largest ground clearance. The drag force coefficient for the squatting car is larger by 5% compared to the reference case, where the both front and rear ground clearances are 100 mm. For the nose-diving car, the drag force coefficient is equal to the reference case. Increasing the ground clearance caused a negligible increase in the lift force coefficient in comparison with the reference case. A decrease in the ground clearance yielded an increase in the lift force coefficient. The largest positive lift force coefficient was obtained for a squatting car, whereas the largest negative lift force coefficient was observed for a nose-diving car. While the favorable aerodynamic downforce acting on front wheels is larger for a nose-diving car, for rear wheels it is larger for a squatting car. |
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ISSN: | 1735-3572 1735-3645 |
DOI: | 10.29252/jafm.12.02.28706 |