AERODYNAMICS-AUTOMOBILES

BANTEE SINGH KONTHOUJAM

(1BM03ME014)
INTRODUCTION:-
Aerodynamics can be described as the study of
forces acting on a body while travelling through
air and the consequential motions due to these
forces. Aerodynamics is vital in car design today
as we strive not only to achieve greater
velocities but also a more cost effective
automobile. Depending on what the function of
the car will be, aerodynamics today drastically
alters the cars design as handling and
performance are directly affected by it.
INTRODUCTION CONTINUED:-
When talking about aerodynamics in car
design the two major forces mentioned
are downforce and drag. Engineers
designing any type of car will only desire
downforce, although downforce and
drag are related; if one is increased so
will the other. Downforce acts
perpendicular to the ground, pushing the
car down. Drag acts horizontally and
opposite of the direction a car is travelling.
 HISTORY:-
The concept of aerodynamics in car design made
little progress until the late 1950's . There is
evidence though of knowledge of this concept as
early as 1928 where a Mr. R. Prevost wrote an
article in 'The Automobile Engineer'. In this article
he described how he strived to "..find a form (of
car shape) offering the minimum resistance to
advance in the air while at the same time giving
the machine the maximum stability and power of
keeping on the track.". This idea was truly
revolutionary at the time; other automobile
designer/manufacturers would mock this idea as
did Enzo Ferrari, "Aerodynamics is for people who
can't build engines".
HISTORY CONTINUED:-

In 1956 aerodynamics in car design made

a huge leap forward only to be thrown
back a few paces again. Michael May, a
contender in formula one in the 1950s-
60s, grasped the concept of aerodynamics
and developed an inverted wing which he
put on top of his Porsche 550 Spyder. The
idea behind it was to create more grip.
HISTORY CONTINUED:-

Michael Mays revolutionary car with an adjustable wing at the back in

1956
HISTORY CONTINUED:-
The abnormal design certainly did not go well
with the crowd and other contenders as it was
greeted with mockery and laughter but Michael
May would have the last laugh on this one.
Michael May managed to place the 4th best time
in practice despite having a regular 550 whilst
his contenders had souped-up Spyders. Hschke
von Hanstein (Porsche boss), obviously worried
this could jeopardize his teams chances of
winning, protested against the wing and
managed to convince the organizers to ban it,
deeming it "unsafe". This was a major setback in
aerodynamic history but the wing had made its
public appearance and it wasn't for long till it
would be experimented with more.
HISTORY CONTINUED:-
The wings appearance had not all gone to waste
when about 10 years later Jim Hall, who worked
for Chaparral, reintroduced the wing onto his 2E
sportscar. He then went onto creating a car
dubbed as the 'sucker-car'. It was referred to this
as the car had an extra 274cc engine which
powered two fans whose purpose was to suck
out air from underneath the car and thus creating
a vacuum. This vacuum would create an
enormous amount of downforce. To ensure the
least amount of air underneath the car, the front
was equipped with skirts and the sides with flaps.
The car managed to out-qualify McLarens car
twice but was banned from the CanAM challenge
in 1971.
HISTORY CONTINUED:-

Jim Hall's Chaparral-Chevrolet 2J 'sucker-car'

DOWNFORCE:-

The term downforce describes the downward

pressure created by the aerodynamic
characteristics of a car that allows it to travel
faster through a corner by holding the car to the
track or road surface.
DOWNFORCE CONTINUED:-
The phenomenon that allows a plane to take off
is called lift. The opposite of lift is downforce
which forces an object down to the ground.
Downforce creates a vacuum underneath the
cars body according to Bernoulli who found out
that any given volume of air will have a low
pressure when the molecules are travelling fast
and a high pressure when the molecules are
travelling slow. The air will have a natural
tendency to travel above the car and as it does
so the molecules travel very fast creating a lift at
the top of the car, especially on the roof and at
the back.
DOWNFORCE CONTINUED:-
The creation of downforce by passive
devices can only be achieved at the cost of
increased aerodynamic drag and the
optimum setup is always a compromise
between the two. Because it is a function
of the flow of air over and under the car,
and because aerodynamic forces increase
with the square of velocity, downforce
increases with the square of the car's
speed and requires a certain minimum
speed in order to produce a significant
effect.
 DOWNFORCE CONTINUED:-
Two primary components of a racing car can be used to
create downforce when the car is travelling at racing speed:
the shape of the body, and
the use of airfoils.

The formula for downforce is given by:

Where:
D is downforce in newtons
WS is wingspan in metres
H is height in metres
AoA is angle of attack
F is aerodynamic coefficient
is air density in kg/m3
V is velocity in m/s2
DOWNFORCE CONTINUED:-
DOWNFORCE CONTINUED:-
DRAG:-
Drag is a race-car drivers' worst enemy
when trying to achieve top speeds. This
force opposes motion and the faster the
vehicle is travelling, the more this drag
force will restrict motion. Frontal pressure
is one of the two main forces that drag is
comprised of. When a car is driving at a
high speed the air molecules hit the front
of the car and begin to compress. This
compression creates a high pressure at the
front. The natural tendency of molecules
to migrate to areas of lower pressure then
draws them out to the sides, top and
bottom of the front of the car.
DRAG CONTINUED:-
DRAG CONTINUED:-
The other drag force that affects a vehicle is called a
rear vacuum. Rear vacuums occur because when a
vehicle is driving through air it "cuts" a hole infront of
it and the air molecules try to fill up this hole again
but the car is creating the hole faster than the
molecules can fill it up. What this does is create a
"gap" or a vacuum where there is no air. Rear
Vacuums are a problem because they "suck" the car in
the opposite direction of travel. This is why formula 1
cars have a sleek design and the body contours of the
vehicle make for easy access to the rear so that the
air molecules can fill up these "gaps".
DRAG CO-EFFICIENTS:-
Drag coefficients (CD) in aerodynamics are drag
forces normalized with a reference area, usually
the frontal area, another projection area or the
wetted area. Sometimes the reference area is not
given, so the drag coefficient is a misleading
figure.
The actual values of the CD of particular devices
are confidential by nature. The drag force,
instead, is more clearly identified.
All the data reported in the tables below must be
read as averages. Each entry has its own order of
approximation. The tables have been elaborated
from a number of sources.
DRAG CO-EFFICIENTS:-
Subsonic Transport Aircraft 0.012
Supersonic Fighter ,M=2.5 0.016
Airship 0.020-0.025
Helicopter Download 0.4-1.2
Sports Car 0.3-0.4
Economy Car 0.4-0.5
Pick up truck 0.5
Racing Car 0.65-1.10
VW Polo 0.37
Ford Escort 0.36
Open Vectra 0.29
BMW 520i 0.36
Mercedes 300SE 0.36
OTHER APPLICATIONS:-

FLIGHTS OF BIRDS
TRAJECTORY OF SHOOTING STARS
SWIMMING BY FISHES
MOTION OF SUBMARINES
ROTATION OF WINDMILLS,ETC.
REFERENCES:-

http://www.allamericanracers.com/mfg/aerodynamics.ht
ml
http://cars.ign.com/articles/395/395040p1.html
http://www.jbskyline.net/R34/GTR/index2.php
http://www.formula-one.net/pics/velke/mp4_15_4b.jpg
http://www.gmecca.com/byorc/dtipsaerodynamics.html#
AeroGeneral
http://www.aerodyn.org

http://www.formula1.com
THANK YOU VERY MUCH