Aerodynamic Numerical Simulation in the Process of Car Styling

Abstract

With the development of automotive industry of China, more and more new cars are brought out. Then more and more stylists and engineers will take part in car styling to design new car. In the process of car styling, Car aerodynamics is important to its performance. Especially for more excellent handling and stability performance, more aerodynamic analysis and optimization should been done. At first it was introduced that the process of car styling in this paper. The functions of aerodynamics in the process were indicated. Secondly some ways of aerodynamic analysis were put forward. The first one is wind tunnel test and the second one called virtual wind tunnel test. The virtual wind tunnel test is one of the best modern ways of aerodynamic design which apply in the fields of aerodynamic research widely. It was based on computational fluid dynamics. The details of the virtual wind tunnel test simulation were narrated in this paper. Applying the virtual wind tunnel test aerodynamic drag coefficient, velocity contour and pressure distribution were got. Some advices to reduce aerodynamic drag of the design car were put forward. In one word, it is one simple, effective, convenient and fast way for aerodynamic design in car styling process using virtual wind tunnel test.

Aerodynamic Drag Reduction Design of Concept Sports Car

“…Choosing optimal scheme of arrangement and avoiding difficult problems in the developed stage in order to speed up development and reduce the costs of testing [3]. Numerical simulation based on aerodynamics in car design is a rapid, simple and effective design method [5].…”

Benchmark tests for a Formula SAE Student car prototyping

“…To stimulate students' creativity in building a Formula SAE Student prototype, specific well-established general rules (construction and safety) was set, following the students to discover and implement innovative solutions to improve performance racing car inside imposed regulation limits [2,9,11]. One of the immediate ways to increase performance of Formula SAE Student race-car is to improve the overall aerodynamic performance through experiments in wind tunnels [12] or applying numerical simulation processes [16]. Aerodynamics is the scientific and technical domain that studies the effects of air flow around solid bodies.…”

“…Aerodynamics is the scientific and technical domain that studies the effects of air flow around solid bodies. Theoretical and practical applications of aerodynamics are prevailing in aviation and automotive industry, considering that fluid flow directly affects both aircraft performance as well as performance cars [5,6,13,16]. For automotive industry the study of aerodynamics is a continuous challenge, in idea to development and construction of vehicles as best in terms of fuel consumption, correlated with engines performance (power, torque and efficiency) as higher as possible [5,6].…”

“…For automotive industry the study of aerodynamics is a continuous challenge, in idea to development and construction of vehicles as best in terms of fuel consumption, correlated with engines performance (power, torque and efficiency) as higher as possible [5,6]. Computer modeling to study the vehicle's aerodynamic characteristics is a current and modern method, widely used in automotive industry by all manufacturers, because it makes possible detailed and non-destructive evaluation of any physical structure and/or process that having any degree of complexity, using computers and dedicated software package [1,4,13,16]. For this are done many tests in specialized wind tunnels, experimental tests that are very expensive and using a lot of measurement systems but offers the immediate benefits of a high accuracy of the data obtained [8,12].…”

Propuesta metodologica en el ambito de la mecatronica: vehículos de competicion de alta eficiencia

“…Al respecto cabe destacar los trabajos de M. Argento et al [25], Xin Chen et al [26,27], Yingshao Zhang et al [28,29], D'Anca et al [30] y Valete et al [31] donde se analizan diferentes aspectos para los que el CFD puede ser aplicado como la generación de ruido en el automóvil, y la influencia del CFD en el diseño conceptual y estilístico de los coches, todos estos trabajos han sido realizados de forma reciente, con fines de estudio y desarrollo académico. Comparativa en el proceso de la forma de un vehículo con y sin la utilización de simulación CFD [17].…”