Hi Everyone,
I need some advice on how to calculate downforce on a sports car.
My objective is to simulate a car without spoiler/rear wing vs a car with spoiler/rear wing.
I want to calculate downforce at the front wheels vs rear wheels. I made a slight cut at the bottom of wheels to simulate road contact.
Q1. Is it proper to put surface goals at those areas? (Surface goal component force Y)
Q2. Any other ideas to measure downforce more efficently?
Q3. External flow, or internal flow (design a tunnel and place the car model in it). Which is better?
Appreciate if help/advise can be contributed coz I need these answers ASAP
Hello,
Yes, put surface goals anywhere and everywhere you want to know anything. It doesn't significantly increase solving time and lets you make the results plots you want.
I would recommend external flow for this simulation since the box walls will induce fluid friction if you put the car in a box and use internal flow. Then again, wind tunnels are basically boxes - I guess you just make the walls far enough away from the model that they don't have a significant effect on the results. I would then recommend you to try both and let us know what the difference is.
Remember to make use of symmetry if possible. Usually the left/right sides of a car are the same (pretty much)? This will cut calculation time by about 1/4.
Regards,
David Fletcher