Surface flow modification of aerofoils for automative racing car application

Allarton, Richard; Cliford, Tyker; Hitchborn, Benjamin; Parker, Liam; Shaw, Joshua; Yao, Jun

Abstract

An aerofoil which is commonly used in aerospace engineering to produce lift is also employed in the motorsport industry to produce downforce for improving traction in cornering. This paper investigates aerofoil surface modification through ‘golf ball dimpling’, used to reduce the separation of flow behind a golf ball. The study of others has shown this type of design can have a positive effect on aerofoil performance. However, no optimization information of dimple sizing is given. Therefore, three types of dimpling sized at 5, 10 and 15 mm (see in figure 1) are applied to the surface of a NACA 6615 wing at 25% of chord length for this study using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) as an initial design process. Then a physical model, made through 3D additive manufacturing, is tested at angles of attack ranging from 0o to 20o and wind speed up to 30 m/s in a subsonic wind tunnel. Experimental and CFD results show that the smallest dimple size provides the most significant increase on lift to drag ratio at high angle attack above 10°. This ratio increases further with wind speed, indicating a high angle of attack wing favours downforce to improve drag reduction performance.

• Presentation Conference Type: Conference Paper (unpublished)
• Conference Name: The Eighth International Symposium on Physics of Fluid (ISPF8)
• Start Date: Jun 10, 2019
• End Date: Jun 13, 2019
• Deposit Date: Jun 23, 2021
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/7487649