R.V.

COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING, BENGALURU – 560059

(Autonomous Institution Affiliated to VTU, Belagavi)

MINI PROJECT REPORT

2018-2019

AERODYNAMIC AND STRUCTURAL ANALYSIS OF AN

AEROPACKAGE FOR FSAE PROTOTYPE.

Submitted to
Department of Mechanical Engineering

Submitted by
MOKSITH BOHRA V 1RV15ME032
DENZIL A JOY 1RV15ME033
YOGESH KUMAR 1RV15ME125
N V UDAY 1RV15ME061

Under the guidance of

DR.KIRTHAN L J
ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR
Department of Mechanical Engineering
R.V college of Engineering
Bangalore-560059
 Aerodynamic and Structural analysis of an aero package for FSAE
prototype.

Introduction
Over the past few decades, motorsport racing has evolved rapidly and this can be contributed to
the fact that there is intense competition between racing companies to gain milliseconds over each
other. There are mainly three areas that engineers concentrate on to gain timing are increase in
engine power within competition rules, reduction of overall weight and increasing traction between
the wheels and the road surface to enhance cornering speed. The inception of aerodynamics as a
key subsystem in motorsport racing came about in the 1970’s. The basic concept behind
aerodynamic surfaces on cars is to increase the downforce and hence increase the traction between
the tyre and the road. This ensures an increase in cornering efficiency which means that a corner
can be taken at higher speeds. This has to be done while making sure that drag is at a bare minimum
so as to reduce engine losses that occur in overcoming drag.

The major components in an aeropackage on an FSEA prototype are front wings, rear wings, end
plates, diffusers and active aerodynamics. Wings used in motorsport racing are synonymous with
the ones used in aeroplanes with the major difference being that the ones in motorsport racing are
inverted aerofoils providing downforce instead of lift. In addition to proving increased traction,
aeropackage is also used to reduce inherent oversteer as speed in increases in a corner. In high
speed corners the front wheels instantaneously accelerate faster than the rear wheels thus they
trend to slip out and the car oversteers. Now with the addition of an aeropackage the downforce
acts as an additional virtual mass on the rear end of the car and this in turn helps in increasing the
instantaneous acceleration of the rear thus reducing oversteer.

Problem definition

In order to keep the speed of the vehicles at low levels for safety reasons, most tracks at several
FSAE competitions consists primarily of repeated sharp turns and less of long straights. This fact
the led the majority FSAE teams to realize that the race can be won mainly by increasing the
cornering performance of the car. This makes the necessity of an efficient aerodynamic design
even greater due to the significant difference that is made in cornering speed which can reduce the
lap time.
The airfoil design and manufacturing methods used in modern day motorsport racing is highly
confidential information, restricted to the team solely, and rarely found in open source journals
and books. As a result, the outside world is left in the dark about the exact state of the art
technologies and softwares used in motorsport racing for aerodynamics development. One can
only make technical guesses and rely on a plethora of individual contributions of various
researchers in the field of ground effect aerodynamics to arrive at specific design methodologies.

Literature Review
Basic concepts such as down force (a force, produced by a combination of air resistance and
gravity, that acts on a moving vehicle, having the effect of pressing it down towards the ground
and giving it increased stability) , drag force (Skin friction drag is caused by the actual contact of
the air particles against the surface of the moving object and form drag is caused by trying to shift
air particles ) , lift and drag coefficients, wing theory and aerofoils and the terminology related to
aerofoils has been thoroughly explained by Ioannis Oxyzoglou[1]. Considering that there are
multiple components in an aero package, we will be concentrating on the design and analysis of
front and rear wings.
The basic concepts of aerodynamics, especially those pertaining to motorsport applications is of
paramount importance to design any aerodynamic surface. Joseph Katz [2] in his book has
provided a comprehensive study of all basic fluid mechanics phenomena, the history of motorsport
aerodynamics, the evolution of all aerodynamic surfaces, and he has gone into a certain level of
detail while explaining the challenges that are experienced by designers. He provides the
quantitative analysis of endplates and their importance in relation to apparent increase in aspect
ratio. He also provides the basic terminology of the airfoil and provides some examples of low
Reynolds number airfoils.
The conceptual understanding of race car flow phenomena and the complex aerodynamics
involved help in the design of the aerodynamic surfaces for a race car. The complexity of
automobile and race car aerodynamics is comparable to airplane aerodynamics and is not limited
to drag reduction only. The generation of downforce and its effect on lateral stability has a major
effect on race car performance, particularly when high speed turns are involved. The basic design
methodology starts with understanding the role of the aerodynamics package in a car and the
holistic design approach of the entire package which includes rear wings and front wings and their
effect on vehicle dynamics, especially related to FSAE cars. Wordley and Saunders [3] in their
paper describe the basic elements involved in the aerodynamics package of an FSAE race car.
They initially provide a preliminary calculation for the downforce required by the car. They also
explain about aerodynamic balancing. This means that we have to design the front wings first and
then based on the downforce generated we design the rear wings based on the downforce required.
They also provide a comparison between a car with and without wings and how it performs in
different events such as skidpad, autocross and acceleration. It reduces the timings in acceleration
but significantly increases timings in skidpad and autocross.
It is also important to understand in detail, the airfoil and wing design processes. There are many
excellent airfoil design approaches which are used. Smith provides a background of High Lift
Aerodynamics. Leibeck had a unique design methodology which included using a high rooftop
suction followed by a Stratford pressure recovery. Eppler generated airfoils based on moderate
rooftop suction and moderate pressure recovery. Wortmann had a design philosophy based on
more convex pressure recoveries.
Methodologies that are available for aerofoil design are mentioned in a paper by Howoong
Namgoong of Perdue University [4]. There are two main design procedures that can be adopted
while designing an airfoil section. They are direct and inverse design methods. Direct design is the
conventional methodology which was used even on the first airfoils. In this procedure, the airfoil
shape is manually altered by changing the shape of the splines of the upper and lower surfaces of
the airfoil and then the generated airfoil is checked for its performance. If there is any change
needed, the process is repeated implementing the previous change. Thus, this is a highly iterative
and tedious process and is not efficient in terms of time and resources consumed. In recent times,
a new design methodology has come about that has made airfoil design a much less involved
process. This method, called the inverse airfoil design method allows the designer to input the
velocity profiles that are desired over the upper and lower surfaces. The design software then
automatically generates a shape which is smooth and also satisfies the velocity distribution
requirement. This is essentially a reverse calculation but reduces the number of iterations required
drastically as it gives the designer direct control over the final airfoil performance. Here we have
adopted the inverse method. After a careful examination of the different aerofoil profiles given in
a summary of low speed airfoil data by MichaelS. Selig [5], we have come to a conclusion that
S1223 airfoil is best suited for our needs

Objective
● To Study the parameters involved in designing aeropackages for FSAE Race Cars.
● To Design an aero package which meets the specifications put forward by the Formula
Society of Automotive Engineers.
● To simulate the designs in order to see if the design produces the appropriate amount of
downforce as calculated.
● To create an aero package which shows Flexibility-similar performance over large range
of Reynolds number.
● To find the most efficient compromise between downforce/drag for best handling at
cornering.
● To design a structurally stable aeropackage with minimum deflection under loaded
condition.
● To construct a lightweight wings using composites materials (GFRP; CFRP).
Methodology

CALCULATIONS OF DESIGN OF REAR WING

+
DOWNFORCE REQUIRED FOR
UNDERSTEER
NO OF ELEMENTS

DESIGN AEROFOIL FOR

FRONT WING BY INVERSE FLUENT ANALYSIS
METHOD

XFLR5 FLOW DESIRED NO

ANALYSIS DOWNFORCE

YES

PLACEMENT OF
SATISIFIES NO REARWING
FLOW
CONDITION
S
AERODYNAMIC NO
YES BALANCE

NO OF ELEMENTS
&PLACEMENT WITH YES
RESPECT TO GROUND
MODELING FOR
STRUCTURAL ANALYSIS

FLUENT FLOW
ANALYSIS
STRUCTURAL
ANALYSIS

DESIRED NO REQUIRED NO
DOWN STIFFNESS &
YES
FORCE STRNGTH

FINAL DESIGN
Research and Progress
Calculation of down-force for required understeer
● Developing of Four-wheel stability model - A mathematical model is developed with
lateral force and camber as the inputs and the slip angle and weight transfer is calculated.
Then the lateral force for each tire is calculated and yaw moment is computed.
● Various parameters like weight of the car, wheelbase, track width, roll stiffness etc., is kept
fixed for the four wheel stability model to find the aerodynamic balance for slight
understeer (shown in figure 1).
● Developing a tyre model -A mathematical model is developed for the tire, which uses the
normal load as input and lateral forces on each tire is calculated for different slip angles.
The optimum operating slip angles are chosen based on the lateral forces so that the vehicle
has maximum cornering ability. Using tyre-model the required downforce that to be
produced by the wings are found out. (figure 4)

Figure 1
 Figure 2

Figure 3

Figure 4

Figure 5
Selection of Aerofoil

As per the FSAE rules, aeropackages must adhere to certain dimensional specifications. Deviation
from these specifications leads to disqualification from the competition. The rules and regulations
are as follows:

For the front spoiler:

● The front of the spoiler may be no more than 700 mm from the front of the front tyres.
● The width of the spoiler may not exceed that of the outside of the front tyres.

For the rear spoiler

● The rearmost portion of the spoiler may be no more than 250 mm from the rear of the
rear tyres.
● The front most portion may not be ahead of the driver’s restraint.
● The width of the spoiler may not exceed that of the inside of the rear tyres.

Ground Effects
● Power devices may not be used to remove air from the underside of the vehicle with
the exception of fans used exclusively to cool the engine.

In order to select a suitable aerofoil for design of the spoilers, we began with a number of candidate
aerofoils which were selected from the University of Illinois at Urbana Campaign‘s “Summary of
Low speed aerofoil data” and Liebeck’s “Subsonic Aerofoil Data”.
 The collection of aerofoil tested during the UIUC Low-Speed aerofoil tests.

To aid in the navigation of the data, the aerofoils are grouped and discussed by category, e.g.,
aerofoils for free flight models, aerofoils for thermal and so on. The categories in order of
discussion are listed along with the associated aerofoils. Also for reference, table lists the
thickness, camber and pitching moment for the aerofoils.
As the motorsport wings require high negative lift coefficient for increased downforce; from the
above table we can conclude that heavy lift cargo planes category aerofoils can be used to satisfy
the requirement.

The parameters which were examined to narrow down the number of aerofoils were:

● Maximum Coefficient of Lift

● Angle of attack
● Coefficient of drag
Based on the above parameters and after considering the lift to drag ratio to further understand
which aerofoil gave better performance at its operating point, the list was reduced to 2 aerofoils

● FX-74-CL5-140
● S1223
On further comparing the two aerofoils it was found that S1223 provided not only a better value
of CL but also marginally smaller value of CD . Therefore S1223 was selected as the foil which we
would use for construction of the spoilers.

The design philosophy employed in the design of S1223 aerofoil involves combining the favorable
effects of both a concave pressure recovery and aft loading to achieve maximum lift at a design
Reynolds number.
Design of Aerofoil
Based on the literature survey and referring research papers we decided to use S1223 as basic
aerofoil profile to get the required aerofoil by employing Inverse-design method using XFLR5
software, which is a version of the XFOIL software created by Mark Drela.
The objective of inverse design is to be able to provide the airfoil shape based on the aerodynamic
requirements specified by the designer. Inverse design methods allow the designer to prescribe
velocity or pressure distributions which are then used to obtain the required geometry
manipulations using various conformal mapping techniques and numerical methods. The velocity
over an airfoil surface is directly related to the surface pressure in incompressible flow. Airfoil lift
at any angle of attack can therefore be calculated by computing the area between the velocity
curves for the upper and lower surfaces of the airfoil. Pitching moment is obtained by calculating
the chord wise distribution of this area. The shape of the velocity gradient, of the upper surface in
particular, also determines the boundary layer development which can determine drag. The aim
was to take advantage of these relations between velocity distributions and aerodynamic
performance coefficients such as CL, CD and CM It was recognized by the early pioneers of
inverse design that tailoring velocity distributions can help design airfoils with the required
performance as well as provide control over tailoring of the airfoil behavior. But the early methods
did not have boundary layer control and this was added later as the method evolved.

The parameters that were considered while designing the airfoil were:
● Increased loading in aft region for higher lift
● Have more convex pressure recovery region to avoid hard stall at low angle of attack
● Maintaining sufficient trailing edge thickness for ease of manufacture
● Flexibility- similar performance over large range of Reynolds numbers.

Considering these factors the velocity profile of the S1223 is altered to get a new aerofoil shape
which is shown below.
Velocity profile of a standard aerofoil S1223

Velocity of profile changed to get new profile

Future work
● Deciding chord lengths and span of each wing element of front wings based on the
downforce calculated and simulating on ANSYS FLUENT.
● Deciding the number of elements on the rear wing
● Finalizing the chord lengths and the wingspan of the rear wing and also the placement of
it.
● Material comparison between GFRP and CF.

References
[1] DESIGN & DEVELOPMENT OF AN AERODYNAMIC PACKAGE FOR A FSAE RACE
CAR, Diploma Thesis by Ioannis Oxyzoglou
[2] Aerodynamics of Race Cars Joseph Katz Department of Aerospace Engineering, San Diego
State University, San Diego, California 92182;
[3] Aerodynamics for Formula SAE: Initial design and performance prediction, Scott Wordley
and Jeff Saunders Monash Wind Tunnel, Mechanical Engineering Monash University
[4] AIRFOIL OPTIMIZATION FOR MORPHING AIRCRAFT, a thesis by Howoong
Namgoong, Perdue University.
[5] Summary of Low-Speed Airfoil Data MichaelS. Selig, James J. Guglielmo, Andy P. Broeren
and Philippe Giguere