Matthew Bucior Andrew Horton Stephen Wright Chris Zhang

Intro Generally vehicles have a tipping moment when they take turns, so racecars have a plethora of downforce and a low center of gravity to keep them pinned to the ground. Similarly, it is important that there is sufficient downforce when the car is accelerating or decelerating, as it will ensure there is no slipping between the tires and the ground. On the other hand, if the angle of attack for a racecar is always angled at maximum downforce, an associated drag on the airfoil will slow the vehicle down. In races, where the difference between winning and losing is within a few seconds, a carefully angled airfoil can make the difference. The objective of the project is to design and produce an adjustable airfoil/wing to create down force on cars. Currently, cars enthusiasts and racecar drivers use spoilers or wings to add down force, therefore allowing cars to take turns more stably. However, depending on the angle of attack, spoilers often add a significant amount of drag. Likewise, adjusting the angle of attack of the airfoil is timing consuming, and is undesired in race conditions. The proposed system will intelligently adjust a vehicles spoiler, and therefore the downforce exerted on the vehicle. A step motor will adjust the spoilers angle of attack, so that the vehicle has downforce when it is needed, and less drag when downforce is not needed. A potentiometer will be connected to the gas pedal of the vehicle. As a force is exerted on the pedal, the potentiometer will cause a different response to be sent to the control system. The control system will then react to change the angle of attack on the airfoil. Generally, maximum downforce is desired when braking or accelerating, which is why the potentiometer is connected to the gas pedal. When the pedal is engaged, the step motor will turn the wing to the position of maximum downforce, but when disengaged, the motor will return to the position of minimum drag. Customer Car enthusiasts and race teams will be the primary consumer for this product. Depending on the type of car, costs can range from millions of dollars for formula 1 race cars to hundreds of thousands of dollars for GT cars. It is estimated that adding the proposed system to a car would be practically insignificant when compared to the total cost of building a car. More importantly, car enthusiasts and racecar drivers are willing to pay a premium for anything that would improve their cars, because races are often won with such a small difference in time. Likewise, car enthusiasts and racecar drivers have money to spend, as it is an expensive hobby/sport.

Where:

D is downforce in newtons WS is wingspan in metres H is height in metres AoA is angle of attack F is drag coefficient is air density in kg/m V is velocity in m/s