Design of Experiments Applied to Aerodynamic Simulation of a Sub-Compact Vehicle

The use of DoE (Design of Experiments) is an established practice in aerodynamic wind tunnel testing. DoE generates efficient test plans that gather useful information about the influence of design factors on aerodynamic performance, while reducing test time.

The same approach has been applied to CFD simulation. A fractional factorial design was used to investigate the impact of some design factors on drag. The results are used to determine a response function, which in turn allows the effect of any combination of factors to be assessed without the need for further simulation runs.