A Numerical Study of High-Lift Single Element Airfoils with Ground Effect for Racing Cars

A numerical study is presented for high-lift airfoils suitable for racecar applications. The study includes the effect of ground clearance (distance between the airfoil and the ground), angle of attack and Reynolds number based on airfoil chord length. The finite volume code CFL3D, developed by NASA Langley Research Center, is used in the study. Four airfoils are used to represent different airfoil families. The study shows that Reynolds number has a very small effect on the downforce and the drag. Medium and large ground clearance are studied. For medium ground clearance the downforce and the drag increase, as airfoil gets closer to the ground. A considerable increase in the downforce can be gained by even small changes in the ground clearance. As the angle of attack increases both the drag and the downforce increase as expected. For large ground clearance the airfoil performance is close to the freestream case.