CFD Simulation of NASCAR Racing Car Aerodynamics

This paper presents the results of a study of CFD simulation of NASCAR's Car of Tomorrow (COT). Aerodynamic flowfield and forces are computed to investigate effects of moving ground and rotating wheel conditions. Mesh dependence and convergence behavior of various forces is also analyzed to develop an accurate analysis process. Thereafter, the analysis process is applied to compute effects of various design changes of the baseline COT.

CFD analysis showed that the lift on the COT decreases due to the moving ground and rotating wheel (MVG&RW) effects. However the drag increases, in contrast to the typical observations for passenger cars. This was attributed to smaller interaction of the underbody flow with the wake flow. The aerodynamic force increments for design changes showed that MVG&RW may not be required to estimate effects of some of the design changes.