| Description |
Formula SAE (FSAE) is an international engineering design competition organized by SAE International for college students at both the undergraduate and graduate levels with the intention of giving students the opportunity to apply management and engineering skills learned in the classroom to a real design and manufacturing project. Active aerodynamics is the movement of aerodynamic parts on a vehicle, which allows for maximizing downforce and drag in corners to maximize grip and air braking, as well as minimal drag in straightaways in order to increase top speed and efficiency. The purpose of this study was to analyze the feasibility of an active aerodynamic rear wing on the Formula U Racing FSAE vehicle. A 2D optimization in ANSYS CFX determined optimal angles of attack for the 2nd and 3rd elements on the rear wing for high downforce ("closed") and low drag ("open") scenarios. These angles were then used in a 3D computational fluid dynamics model using ANSYS Fluent to find the corresponding forces. The results showed that the closed position actually decreased downforce due to flow separation, but the open position accomplished its intended design of decreasing drag significantly. The closed position used from the 2D optimization is therefore invalid, and it may not be possible to significantly increase downforce by changing the angle of attack of the 3rd and 4th elements. However, the decrease in drag corresponds to about 13% of the maximum vehicle driving force, so an open wing position would provide benefit to the car. However, due to the large investment costs, especially labor time, active aerodynamics is not currently feasible for the Formula U team. |
