Automotive Aerodynamics

Automotive aerodynamics is the study of the aerodynamics of road vehicles. Its main goals are reducing drag and wind noise, minimizing noise emission, and preventing undesired lift forces and other causes of aerodynamic instability at high speeds. Air is also considered a fluid in this case. For some classes of racing vehicles, it may also be important to produce downforce to improve traction and thus cornering abilities.

Research

Construction of railcar

Finished body of the railcar

Assembling of the parts for the railcar

Adding the cartidge

Construction and assembly of front tires

Construction of rear rim

Construction and assembly of the back tires using the rear rim

Construction of front and rear rim spokes

Construction of axels and washer

Engineering drawings of the car

Construction of cartridge

Comparing thin wheels and fat wheels

Data comparing large wheels in the back and thin wheels (the chart on the top is the large wheels).

Data showing the differences when the thin tires are used as opposed to the thick tires on the back.

Graphs

Thin tire values from solver

Thick tire values from solver

Flow sim

Flow sim with both thin and thick tires

Flow sim with all thin tires

Image showing surface plots on the car with both types of wheels

Image showing surface plots on the car with both having thin wheels

The Design

Thumbnail sketches of Hammerhead shark car

Drawing showing top, side, front, and isometric views of the car

Construction of the car (before and after revisions)

Construction of the first car (the one before revisions)

Gif of the first car (the one before revisions)

Flow sim + Data

Surface plots on the car

Picture of the flow sim process

Picture of flow sim

Gif of the flow sim on first car

Graph of the drag in the car without revisions

Graph of the lift in the car without revisions

Data from the flow sim of the car before revisions

Table showing more data from the flow sim

Construction of the car after revisions

The first revision that was made to try and make the car more aerodynamic was to change the shape of the head so it would make the air go upwards.

The head changed from a circle to tilting more at an angle so that the air is shifted upwards. Fillets were also added to the pectoral fins (the ones on the side). The guideline hole was also moved inside of the car instead of making a separate part underneath like before.

Showing the surface plots

Flow sim of the revised car

Graph of the drag in the revised car

Graph of the lift in the revised car

Data from flow sim of the revised car

Drawing of the hammerhead car showing different views

Table showing more data from the flow sim on the revised car

Test prints

Video of the 3D printer printing a test print

Test print to show the axle holes, guideline hole, and cartridge hole and make sure that they work.

Race Day

Finished Car After Painting

Painted car without the axels or wheels attached

Bottom of the car, showing the guideline hole

Top view of the car

Side view of the painted car

Finished painted car with wheels

Race 1

These are videos of the first race. The one on the right is a slow-motion video, showing how the car was moving when it was racing. At first the car was winning, then it lost control and was bouncing on the ground towards the end. The cars final time was 1.526 seconds, and it lost ot the other car. On the right you can see how the cars were set up to race, and then them moving across the floor. The video above shows the view from the front of the cars racing.

Slow motion video of the cars racing.

Image before launch

Image right after launch, showing the car going faster

Image showing the time that my car took to cross the finish line (1.526 seconds)

Race 2

This is a video of the second race, where the car won. In this race the car was going slower than the other car, then sped up towards the end. It had a time of 1.589 seconds.

This is a slow motion video of the second race. It is taken from the back, so you can see the time it shows for how long it tok to cross the finishe line.

Image showing cars lined up before launch with the cartridges in them

Image showing the launch of the cars

Race 3

These are videos of the third race. In this race, the hammerhead shark car won, having a time of 1.463 seconds. The video on the left shows a slow-motion video of the race. The video on the left shows the race from the front. The video on the right gets a better view of the launching of the cars, while the one on the left has a better view farther down the race, towards the end.

Picture of the hammerhead shark car being in front of the opposing car

Image showing the launching of the cars

Image showing how the other car was going faster at first

Calculations

Image showing the calculations for all three races for the car. The maximum velocity for the first race was 51.59 mph. The maximum velocity for the second race was 50.23 mph, and the maximum velocity for the third race was 45.62 mph.