Everything You Need to Know About

Aerodynamics

By Julien Versailles

What is it?
The study of forces and the resulting motion of objects through the air or The study of the flow of air around and through an object

Drag
A mechanical force caused by an object moving through a fluid (liquid or gas) The solid body must be in contact with the fluid There must be motion between the object and the fluid It is a vector quantity having both a magnitude and direction acting in a direction opposite to the moving object

Lift and Downforce

Lift is the force that directly opposes the weight of an object and holds it in the air Lift occurs when a solid object turns a moving flow of gas A negative lift causes downforce, which is the force that acts to push an object closer to the ground Lift and downforce are basically the same except that downforce acts downward and lift acts upward

Airplanes
For any airplane to fly, you must lift the weight of the airplane The airfoils (wings) generate most of the lift to hold the plane in the air Jet engines or propellers provide the thrust to push the airplane forward through the air

Newtons 3rd Law

For every action (force) in nature there is an equal and opposite reaction helps to explain the generation of lift from an airplane wing The air is deflected downward by the action of the wing, and in reaction the wing is pushed upward

The Bernoulli Effect

If a fluid (gas or liquid) flows around an object at different speeds, the slower moving fluid will exert more pressure than the faster moving fluid on the object
The object will then be forced toward the faster moving fluid The wing of an airplane is shaped so that the air moving over the top of the wing moves faster than the air beneath it Since the air pressure under the wing is greater than that above the wing, lift is produced

Racecars
The total aerodynamic package of the racecar is emphasized now more than ever before The focus of their efforts is on the aerodynamic forces of downforce and drag Downforce is necessary for maintaining speed through the corners The efficient design of a ground effects racecar is based on a downforce/drag compromise

The Chassis
The shape of the chassis is similar to an upside down airfoil The shape of the underbody creates an area of low pressure between the bottom of the car and the racing surface The shape of the chassis sucks the car to road, which results in higher cornering speeds

Wings
Airfoils or wings are also used in the front and rear of the car in an effort to generate more downforce The efficiency of a wing is the downforce/drag ratio

The Front Wing Assembly

The first part of the car to meet the air mass The flow field here is better than at other parts of the car because the air here has been disturbed the least The wing is designed to produce downforce and guide the air as it moves toward the body and rear of the car

The Rear Wing Assembly

The turbulent air moving toward the rear of the car will impact the efficiency of the rear wing The rear wing is not as aerodynamically efficient as the front wing, yet it must generate more than twice as much downforce to balance the car

Streamlines of Road Cars

As the air flows over the hood of a regular car, it's loses pressure, but when it reaches the windscreen, it again comes up against a barrier, and briefly reaches a higher pressure The higher-pressure area in front of the windscreen creates a downforce As the higher-pressure air in front of the windscreen travels over the windscreen, it accelerates, causing the pressure to drop lower pressure literally lifts on the car's roof as the air passes over it

The Underside of a Car

The underside of the car is responsible for creating lift or downforce If a car's front end is lower than the rear end, then the widening gap between the underside and the road creates a vacuum, or low-pressure area, and therefore "suction" that equates to downforce

Flow Detachment
Once the air makes it's way to the rear window, the notch created by the window dropping down to the trunk leaves a vacuum, or low pressure space that the air is not able to fill properly As a result, a continuous vacuum sucks in the opposite direction the resulting lower pressure creates lift that then acts upon the surface area of the trunk

Applying Aerodynamics
To appreciate the importance of aerodynamics as applied to motor vehicles it must be realized that, as driving speeds increase, the power needed to overcome air drag multiplies at a very rapid rate As an example, let us apply this formula to a car whose engine has to generate 18 HP to overcome the air drag at 80 km/h The power needed to double the speed to 160 km is shown in the following example. This is eight times the power needed to travel at 80 km If it were possible to reduce the drag by 25% we would need only 108 HP and fuel consumption would be about one-quarter less than what it was before It is now obvious why the proper shaping and streamlining of a car pays very significant dividends at little extra cost

Why You Need Aerodynamics

Not only can better aerodynamics help improve the speed of a car, but it can also better the efficiency of a car Proper aerodynamic shaping, has been found to be the most effective and least costly method of increasing fuel economy and performance, especially at higher speeds

Other Important Aspects of Aerodynamics

Automotive aerodynamics also plays an important role in other related areas including: high-speed traction, sensitivity to crosswinds, efficient cooling (engine, drive train, exhaust system, and brakes), keeping the front windshield, the windows, the mirrors and the headlights clean, and last but not least, reducing wind noise to a minimum