aero

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Aerodynamics in Race Cars

• By
• Mohan kumar Sellappan

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Aerodynamics In Race Cars

• The main focus in building and designing a
  successful race car is making it aerodynamically
  efficient.
• The car must be versatile, durable, safe, and
  most important, fast.
• The challenge for the design team is to create
  car that can race on any type of track, whether
  it be on tight corners or long straightaways.
  

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Car Development and Racing Physics

• The aerodynamics of the race car is
  multi-functional.
• 1. To make it as streamline as possible.
• 2. To provide downforce for the race
  vehicle.
• 3. To control the airflow over the cars
  body.

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Streamlining

• Streamlining a vehicle means reducing the drag of
  the vehicle traveling through the air.
• This is done two ways
• 1.Making the surfaces in contact with the
  air as smooth as possible.
• 2.Decreasing the size of the car, as
  reduction in the cross-sectional area of the
  vehicle will result in less drag and in turn high
  speed.

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Downforce

• Downforce is the opposite of lift.
• Lift occurs due to a difference in pressures on
  opposite sides of aerofoils caused by Bernoullis
  effect. The wings on race cars are essentially
  wings flipped upside-down so that the lifting
  force is directed in a downward direction.

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1.The theory behind creating downforce is to
increase the force that the vehicle has on the
ground. 2.This in turn will increase the
traction of the tires, enabling the race cars to
make sharp turns at higher speeds.

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Front Wing

• The front wing is the first thing that comes in
  contact with oncoming airflow, therefore it is
  designed to
• 1. give the vehicle downforce directed at
  the front tyres.
• 2. direct the airflow over the body.

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Front Wing

• The front wing assembly directs air toward the
  under-body of the chassis, toward the radiators,
  diffusers, and rear wings, and over and around
  the tyres.
• Any change in the airflow over the front wing
  will change the overall airflow over the entire
  vehicle.
• With optimum settings for the front wing, it can
  produce about 1500 lbs of downforce.

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Rear wing

• The rear wing is designed to provide an enormous
  downforce focused to the rear tyres.
• This gives the vehicle great traction for
  acceleration and turning.

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Rear Wing

• Optimum wings can create as much as 3000 lbs of
  downforce.
• Creating more downforce by the rear wing results
  in more drag.
• Therefore, engineers try to design the wings for
  the best drag/downforce compromise. This can vary
  depending on track conditions, and racing
  conditions.

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Chassis

• The chassis is designed to produce maximum
  downforce for the vehicle. This is done in two
  ways
• 1. the design of the underbody and
• 2. giving the vehicle a rake.
• In doing so, the car can make sharp turns at
  high speeds while maintaining complete control of
  the handling.

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Chassis

• A rake means the rear of the race car is higher
  than the front.
• This results in the cars body acting as an
  aerofoil, and produces downforce for the entire
  vehicle.
• The special design of the underbody allows an
  area of low pressure under the car.
• This results in the car being sucked toward the
  track by the passing airflow.

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Diffuser

• The diffuser is usually found on each side of the
  central engine and gearbox fairing and is located
  behind the rear axle line.
• The diffuser consists of many tunnels and
  splitters. It is designed carefully to guide and
  control airflow underneath the racecar.

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Diffuser

• Essentially, it creates a suction effect on the
  rear of the racecar and pulls the car down to the
  track.The suction effect is a result of
  Bernoullis equation, which states that where
  speed is higher, pressure must be lower.
• This implies that the pressure below the racecar
  must be lower than the pressure at the outlet
  since the speed of the air below the racecar will
  be higher than the speed of the air at the
  outlet.

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Thank You