Automotive AeroDynamics

Week 1 of Building a railcar on Solidworks

Front Tires

Fully Assembled

Rear Tires

Rear Wheel Assembled

Adding the Cockpit

CockPit was the hardest part of building the body of the car because of the Loft. The Loft would automatically work so the sketches had to be selected manually. As well as In the correct order for it to work. If the sketch of the cockpit was missing something or was not done correctly, its possible you would need to start over.

Assembling The Car

Adding Cartridge

Adding Decals and Images

Using Flow Simulator

This is the Second Railcar excel sheet about the Drag of the car

This is the First Rail Car Drag excel Sheet

This is the First Rail Car

To find the Precentage improvement between the first car and the second car, Put (50.10 - 34.84)/50.10 x 100. With this the result is a 30.45% non-improvement.

This is the second rail car

The Gif of the first car - The dark green near the back wheels meaning lots of pressure

However in this image to the right, the dark green is gone.

Week 2 - Bulilding my Own Car

Initial sketches of my Car design

From the beginning I wanted my Car to be based on an F-1 Race car.
However I did not add the Spoiler, and changed the design of the cockpit to be more aerodynamic.
The wheels and front bumper take the brunt of the drag but overall it is aerodynamic.

Reference Pictures and changes

The top images were what looked out while designing the Car
The Top view shows the final sketch of the car.
- The car needed to match the mandatory specs to making the car, and in turn I shortened the car. The sketch reflects that (a total loss of 101 mm).

Drawing of first car

Using FLow Simulator

Used the Same Conditions as the first Flow simulator

Same Conditions as the first Flow Simulator, however car was modified.

1st graph of drag

2nd graph of drag

This is the original car excel sheet

With the added Fillets on the tire covers, and doing the math. (86.85 - 89.87/86.85 x 100 = a -3.47% in drag, meaning it is an improvement

The refined car's excel sheet

1st car - Blue is good, meaning less drag and lift

2nd car- Added Filets to wheel covers to descrease drag and improve airflow

This is the final measurement for the car, Previously it was improperly made and not within the required specs. The Car is now approx. 198 mm instead of 297mm.

Test Printing

This was my first test Slice. I put supports under the fenders so it wouldn't fail, unfortunately the print failed anyways.

This is my second slice test. This time I put support under the fenders and front bumper, this test print was successful.

The Successful Print

After successful test print, now printing full car. (along with Nathaniel May on the right)

3D printer printing the sliced Gif on Left

Finished print

For the Wheels.

They ended up being too long and i needed to sand them down to fit the axels with the washers.

Racing the car

Day 1 - Friday

Setting up my car to be pushed using C02 container. The in the station needle will pierce the C02 cartridge launching it.

Both Cars set up and ready to go

IMG_0012.MOV

My car on the Right.

Racing the Car - Day 2

Calculations for Car Day 1 (time - 3.644)- 57.9MPH and 54.003MPH

Calculations for Day 2(time - 3.893) - 31.96MPH and 54.63MPH

Still Images of the car

Gifs of Cars going after C02 Cartridge(mine of the right)

Racing the Car - Day 3

Changed the wheels on Car from thick to skinny.

Last Race car with new Wheels Resulted in a final 75.117 MPH and 42.933MPH and an impressive time of 2.695 seconds. (although 42.933 is more accurate due to the .4 cartridge.)

Car in slow motion

Finaly Car Race - Day 3(mine on the right)