Race Car
Race Car
https://doi.org/10.22214/ijraset.2020.32700
International Journal for Research in Applied Science & Engineering Technology (IJRASET)
ISSN: 2321-9653; IC Value: 45.98; SJ Impact Factor: 7.429
Volume 8 Issue XII Dec 2020- Available at www.ijraset.com
Abstract: This research paper focuses on the impact of Aerodynamics on the Vehicle dynamics and performance of a FSAE style
race car. During a race the car is rarely in a straight-line head-on wind condition and thus, it is imperative to understand the
effect of pitching, rolling and side winds on the aerodynamic stability of the vehicle. One method to obtain accurate information
about the aerodynamic loads in dynamic conditions is demonstrated in this paper - the Aerodynamics Map (Aeromaps). This
paper discusses the methodology used to generate and use the aeromaps for accurate predictions and provides the observation
regarding the various vehicle setup and reduction in error to predict laptimes. Numerous Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD)
models are prepared and studied for various vehicle configurations; the data from these is later incorporated in MATLAB to
obtain 3D surface plots. These plots can then be used to develop accurate laptime simulation models using MATLAB, IPG, or
Optimum Dyanmics or to obtain the best vehicle setup for a particular event and driver. For this study, the Ride height is limited
to 25mm on either side of the mean and the roll is limited to 2o. The effect of cross winds from 0o to 180o and effect of vehicle
pitching on the ground effect and vehicle aerobalance have also been studied. These results were then used in the MATLAB
model of the vehicle to obtain optimized vehicle integration and accurate laptimes.
Keywords: Vehicle Dynamics, Aerodynamics, Aeromaps, Computational Fluid dynamics, Formula Student, race car, MATLAB
I. INTRODUCTION
The Formula Student is a competition where teams from around the globe conceptualize, design, build and compete with a formula
style race car in dynamic events like autocross, endurance, skidpad, and acceleration. All vehicles must adhere to the safety
standards and the unyielding parameters laid down in the rulebook. This defines the domain in which the teams can alter their
designs. Even at slow speeds, aerodynamics plays a vital role in the performance of the formula style race car. The additional
downforce equates to additional grip which is paramount for the Formula Student track that comprises high speed sharp corners and
slaloms. The autocross and endurance events have corners of up to 25m radius, slaloms and chikanes, whereas skidpad is a steady
state event where the race car is made to go around an 8 shaped track of radius 9.125m.
Given the nature of these events, the car is expected to be either in corner exit or entry in a state of roll, pitch and yaw and thus
straight line CFD simulations fall short in predicting the aerodynamic performance and vehicle dynamics accurately. Aero-balance
being an important parameter in estimating the performance of the vehicle, any inaccuracy in it would result in an inaccurate vehicle
model. Thus, this paper discusses one method in obtaining a better understanding of the aerodynamic forces and its effect on the car
in the dynamic conditions using Aeromaps. These Aeromaps not only help improve the laptime simulation model developed but
also provide necessary insights about various vehicle configurations. This provides better tuning of the car for each event and
facilitates better system integration. Aeromaps can also be used to validate the aerodynamic package on the race car. Furthermore,
they can be used to obtain the best vehicle configuration for a particular track, event, and driver. Thus, Aeromaps is one method to
fine tune the Vehicle Dynamics of the Formula style race car.
Drag is a force that acts opposite to the direction of motion of the vehicle thus, the driving force needs to overcome drag to keep the
vehicle moving. The drag limited top speed of the vehicle is the speed at which the vehicle's drag equates the propulsive force of the
engine or motor. The aerodynamic balance refers to the distribution of the aerodynamic load on the vehicle. It is usually specified as
a ratio or percentage of loads on the front and rear axle respectively and signifies the impact of aerodynamic loads on stability.
The flow field around a vehicle keeps on changing dynamically depending upon factors such as manoeuvring of the vehicle, vehicle
geometry, disturbance in the flow of air, incoming flow direction etc. The aerodynamic load on the vehicle is a function of the flow
field around the vehicle and since these parameters keep changing with the different dynamic conditions it is imperative that all
these factors are accounted for and are properly modelled while performing simulation. Aerodynamic Mapping refers to the
mapping of the aerodynamic parameters with respect to all the different dynamic flow conditions that the vehicle might experience
during the race. These aerodynamic maps can be used to develop accurate laptime simulation models of the vehicle and also to
study the aerodynamic stability of the vehicle.
To obtain the aerodynamic loads and their effects on Vehicle dynamics in the dynamic condition a methodology was proposed. By
performing baseline CFD simulations the team determined the performance parameters for the racecar in head on wind condition.
Further, the CAD model of the car was changed to match the dynamic conditions that might arise during the race such as yaw, pitch,
roll and heave and simulations were then initiated to obtain the desired Aeromaps. The results were then processed and fed into the
MATLAB model to obtain 3D extrapolated surface graphs of the aeromaps which was used to fine tune the vehicle. Finally, during
testing and validation the on-track data obtained via the gyroscope, wheel speed sensors, damper displacements, pitot tube, and lap
time sensors were compared to the MATLAB model to accurately simulate the racecar in a virtual environment. Thus, the flow
chart above presents the process followed for this research.
IV. PROCEDURE
Various factors need to be ensured and several steps need to be followed in order to obtain an accurate aeromap. The accuracy of the
laptime simulations depend on the aeromaps which in turn depend on the CFD simulations and CAD models. Thus, the procedure is
briefly discussed in this section.
The turbulent kinetic energy (k) is given by the formula: = ( ) ,where U is mean flow velocity, and I is Turbulence intensity
2) Mesh Parameters and Quality: Meshing was done in Simscale using the Hex-dominant mesh with parametric settings for the
domain. The bounding box was sufficiently long to capture all wake flows with 14m behind the car, 8m ahead, 4m on either
side and 6m above the car. Mesh refinements were then applied on all the bodies of the car and the mesh was finer closer to the
car with special attention to the wings, diffuser and the suspension members. Multi-Rotating frames were used for the tyres to
obtain the rotating zone of the wheels. The tyre contact patch was also meshed with sufficient refinement. Thus, the flow
around the vehicle could be accurately modelled. further the y+ values for all surfaces were obtained and mesh was further
refined. Additionally, inflation was given throughout the car to capture near wall flow structures like flow separation. Further,
region refinements were also added near the car parts to have a better visualization of the wake turbulence and various vortices
produced. The final mesh is shown below and had the following number of cells
Total number of parametric cells :1,66,98,723
Figure 4: Mesh
The quality of the mesh is given by various parameters like the orthogonality, concavity, number of pyramid cells, Aspect Ratio of
cells, skewness, interpolation weights, face twist, and volume ratio of neighbouring cells. The quality of the simulation based on
these factors is presented in the table below. An accurate simulation depends on the quality of the mesh and hence having high
quality is of utmost importance.
3) Boundary Conditions: The Boundary Conditions used for the simulation is mentioned in the table below, the CADs were
changed for the pitch heave and roll simulations keeping the boundary conditions the same. However, for yaw simulations both
the CAD and the Boundary Conditions were changed.
Sr. no. Boundary Condition Face/Position Value
A. A slight rearward aero bias where the centre of pressure (CoP) is behind the centre of mass is commonly used to ensure high
speed stability. In low to mid speed turns the car needs a slight rear, this prevents the car suffering corner entry oversteer.
B. In faster turns the front wing can lead the car. The drivers turn in gentler in fast turns, which creates less lateral acceleration at
the rear axle. Thus, at higher speeds you can have a CoP biased towards neutral or the front.
C. Designing for a good aero balance will ensure that the vehicle exhibits neutral handling characteristics rather than under-steer or
over-steer because of unevenly distributed aero loads.
D. Thus, a slight front dominated downforce of 56% was selected as baseline. This however was adjustable by changing the flap
angels for each driver according to their feedback.
E. The picture below shows the load distribution and the moments generated about the cg and the location of the line of pressure.
F. The distance between the mid wheelbase on the ground and the point where the cp intersects the ground in terms of percentage
gives the balance of the vehicle.
The vehicle will, however, never be at a constant ride height, pitch, roll or yaw in the dynamic conditions and the variations in the
aerodynamic coefficient and aerobalance are discussed in the further sections.
1) Variations with Heave: The table above shows the variation of the various aerodynamic loads, moments and aerodynamic
balance with the ride height of the vehicle that is, when the vehicle either heaves positively or negatively. As the ride height
decreases the downforce increases and the balance shifts towards the front because of the additional ground effect produced by
the front wing. A +-5% change is observed in aerodynamic balance. The effect on drag and the moments can also be understood
by the following map.
The increase in ground effect of the front wing can be seen clearly as the car heaves down. This is also the reason that the
aerodynamic balance moves forwards. Similarly, the effect when the car heaves up can be seen. The increase in lift produced by the
front wheel with increase in ride height is also prominent. The cut plots show the wake region developed behind the vehicle. Drag
increases when the vehicle is heaved down and reduces when the vehicle moves up.
2) Variations with Pitch Angle: The maximum pitch of the vehicle is between +0.5 to -0.5 degree, however iterations from -0.9 to
+0.9 degrees were performed. The graph and table show that the aerodynamic balance does not change much with pitch angle.
This is an important factor as it gives information on the pitch sensitivity of the car. The table and graph below show the
variation with pitch angle.
4) Variations with Roll: The following two plots show that the variation of aerodynamic balance, lift and drag coefficients as well
as side force with roll is negligible. The pitching moment changes slightly and is responsible for the slight change in the
aerodynamic balance. The slight increase in suction pressure below the front wing can be seen in this image. Thus, the effect of
roll is increased in the downforce on one half of the vehicle. Roll moment is however a destabilizing moment. The roll moment
due to aerodynamic loads produced is very less and does not affect the vehicle performance in turning.
VI. OBSERVATION
The data obtained by the above generated aeromaps was then incorporated in the MATLAB model of the vehicle to obtain laptime
for various events shown below. A comparison between the laptimes with and without the use of Aeromaps is discussed in the table
below. The results were also checked using industry accepted software like IPG and Optimum Dynamics. The values obtained were
later compared with On-track tests to obtain a percentage error. In all these simulations the error with the Aerodynamic Maps was
sufficiently less than the error without the Maps. Thus, the dynamic vehicle conditions are better predicted using the aeromaps and
hence an optimum vehicle setup can be achieved. These maps can also be used to validate the aerodynamic package of the FSAE
race car, but that is beyond the scope of this paper.
The error in the laptimes can be because of a myriad of reasons including, but not limited to, inaccurate sensor reading, noise in the
readings, human-errors, slight oversimplification of the Vehicle model in the simulation software, convergence errors in CFD
simulations, and extrapolation errors.
The table below demonstrates the effect of Aeromaps on laptimes and the percentage error for various events.
Sr. Track
Laptime (s)
No. Layout
12.52 10.93
2 Skidpad 5.03 4.4 4.54 9.82% 4.48 4.67 7.13% 4.54 9.74% 4.95 1.59%
% %
Autocross
with
maximum 90.2 12.74 10.04 10.60
5 78.76 81.20 80.69 84.14 6.78% 84.26 6.65% 88.69 1.74%
12.5m 6 % % %
corners
radius
Autocross
with
69.4 16.38 13.79 13.31
6 maximum 58.05 59.85 60.18 62.75 9.60% 66.25 4.57% 67.78 2.36%
2 % % %
40m corner
radius
Table 3: Laptimes
VII. CONCLUSION
The aerodynamic maps were prepared using CFD simulations pertaining to all the various dynamic conditions which the vehicle
will experience during the run. These Aeromaps of pitch, yaw, roll and heave were then incorporated in the Vehicle Dynamics
MATLAB model to obtain Lap times for various events. Similarly, the data from aerodynamic maps was modelled in the open-
source lap time simulation softwares like IPG and Optimum Dynamics to verify the results. These results were then compared to
actual track tests. The MATLAB simulation results for the AutoCross event without the aerodynamic maps showed a deviation of
8.98 % from actual runs, whereas the simulations using the aerodynamic maps showed 2.61 % deviation. Thus, incorporating
aeromaps in the model helped to reduce the error by 70.93 % and obtain accurate lap times simulation. This further helps in
optimizing the vehicle integration and choosing the best vehicle setup for the event.
The Aerodynamic maps can be further improved by incorporating the data from the steering angle, and wind speed. Further, the
yaw, pitch and roll can be incorporated in a single map to obtain a 5D map with Cl and Cd. These improvements to the aeromaps
will help in reducing the deviations from the actual runs. The MATLAB model can also be further tuned to be more sensitive to
changes in ride height and dynamic conditions and thus, further improvements can be made. Thus, the methodology, procedure,
results, and observations of using Aerodynamic maps to tune the vehicle Dynamic model of the FSAE race car have been discussed
in this paper and the areas of further research have also been discussed.
VIII. ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This Research was supported by K J Somaiya College of Engineering. Further, the research could not have been possible without
the team Orion Racing India. We would further like to take this opportunity to thank Simscale, MATLAB, IPG and OptimumG for
all their support without which this research would not have been possible. However, having said that any errors are our own and
should not be used to tarnish the reputation of this esteemed institution, team, and companies.
REFERENCES
[1] S. McBeath, Competition Car Downforce, Haynes Publishers, 1998.
[2] R. H. Bernard, Road Vehicle Aerodynamic Design, MechAero Publishing, 2nd edition, 2001.
[3] X. Zhang, J. Zerihan, Aerodynamics of a Double Element Wing in Ground Effect, AIAA Journal, Vol. 41, No. 6, pp 1007-1016, 2003.
[4] J. Katz, Race Car Aerodynamics, Bentley Publishers, 1995.
[5] Milliken, W., & Milliken, D. (n.d.). Race Car Vehicle Dynamics,1995.
[6] Jensen, K. (n.d.). Aerodynamic Undertray Design for Formula SAE,2015.
[7] Milliken, W., & Milliken, D. (n.d.). Aerodynamics for Formula SAE: A Numerical, Wind Tunnel and On-Track Study,2006.
[8] John D. Anderson,Computational Fluid Dynamics: An Introduction,1992.
[9] Wordley, S., & Saunders, J. Aerodynamics for Formula SAE: Initial design and performance prediction,2006.
[10] UIUC. (n.d.). UIUC AIrfoil Database.
[11] Merkel, J. DEVELOPMENT OF MULTI-ELEMENT ACTIVE AERODYNAMICS,2013.
[12] Douglas Gogel and Hiroshi Sakurai, The Effects of End Plates on Downforce in Yaw, 2006-01-3647.
[13] Wael A. Mokhtar and Jonathan Lane, Racecar Front Wing Aerodynamics, 2008-01-2988.
[14] Volk, A. R. (n.d.). The Design, Manufacturing, and Testing of the 2014 Side-Pods for the Global Formula Racing Vehicle,2014.