Use of Aerodynamic Optimization in the Preliminary Automotive Design Process

This paper describes a computational and experimental study to document the detailed flow field around a prototyping vehicle, used as tool in the preliminary design process. The concept car called ALLSCAPE has obtained the 3th place at IV International concourse of design Peugeot P.L.E.A.S.E. Innovate 2007. Experimental tools of fluid mechanic will be used to know the aerodynamic behavior of this future prototype. The methodology propose was based on studies of the body in a subsonic wind tunnel with a cross-sectional section of 0,45×0,45 m and rank of speeds from 5m/s to 35m/s. A similarity study was made geometric and dynamic which result in a 1:12 scale model. Also an artificial ground was used to in order to create the ground effect in this varied the separation between the model and the ground. The computational methodology used was CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics). The software used was the ANSYS-CFX 10.0TM. The simulations was realised with a Three-dimensional Geometry (3D), in scale 1:12, validated with experimental tests in wind tunnel. Drag coefficients CD, lift coefficient CL and the flow pattern around the model were reported. Changes in the prototype design will be suggested to improve their aerodynamic behavior. For the experimental studies we counted with a wind tunnel in the Fluid Mechanics laboratory of Simón Bolivar University from Caracas- Venezuela.