Advances in Wind Tunnel Aerodynamics for Motorsport Testing

As the popularity of motorsport continues to surge throughout the world, so to does the level of competition in the motorsport community. Participants work to achieve a performance edge through superior engineering. As an enabling tool, the wind tunnel has become a focus for enhancing performance. This is evidenced by the increasing interest among motorsport teams in dedicated wind tunnel facilities, as best exemplified by the Formula One community. Part of the reason for this increasing focus on wind tunnels is the availability of breakthrough technologies that better simulate on-track conditions, providing new opportunities to enhance performance. Two areas that are the subject of strong current interest are (i) test section configurations that eliminate wind tunnel interference effects to provide the highest possible aerodynamic simulation fidelity and (ii) high speed rolling road systems with integrated force measurement systems that provide high fidelity simulation of underbody effects. This paper presents an overview of these technologies, including selected computational and experimental results that illustrate the simulation advantages obtained with these new wind tunnel technologies.