Automotive Aerodynamics

CO2 Rail Car Construction

Construction of Railcar

Drawing of Railcar

FlowSim w/ Thin & Thick Tires

FlowSim w/ Thin & Thin Tires

FlowSim Charts

FlowSim Graphs

Individual CO2 Rail Car

Thumbnail Sketches & Research

Construction of Original and Final Car

Original Car

Redesigned Car

Flow Sim Data of Original and Final Car

Original Car

Redesigned Car

There were multiple changes between the two cars. My original car featured a lot of curves as a mean to push the air. However, when I tested this car, it was too steep for the air to move around quickly, resulting in slow hair and low pressure areas. I changed this in my redesign by featuring way less curves and an overall skinner design. I made the length of the fins on the side of the car long so that way the air can travelling fast for longer distances. I also added fins to the front and the back of the car because I saw that it improved the number of blue and green areas on the car, but also because it made my car cute.

Drawing of Final Car

Final Print*

*Test prints were not applicable

Slicer Images of Car

Hydro-Dripping Car

IMG_9391.mov

Race Day!

Team Shark-n-ators

Day 1

IMG_6203.mov

IMG_9404.MOV

Stats

Race: Combo Tires

Time: 4.148 seconds

Day 2

IMG_9412.MOV

IMG_6213.mov

Stats

Race: Combo Tires

Time: 2.288 seconds

The time improved significantly from the day before. The biggest reason for this improvement was due to the water mass that was added in Day 1 (from hydro-dripping) had completely dried out which made the car on Day 2 much faster. Additionally, I raced on the bumpy track to test what would happen to the time between today and tomorrow.

Day 3

IMG_6223.MOV

IMG_9433.mov

Stats:

Race: Combo Tires

Time: 2.588 seconds

Nothing was changed between day 2 and day 3, however, I was still on the bumpy track when I wanted to try out the smoother track, so there is potential that the car hit a crack and got thrown off. Also the tires may have gotten more room which led to more vibration since the first day, resulting in the time increase.

Calculating Maximum Velocity

The calculating maximum velocity was 33.352 ft/s or 22.74 mph.