Numerical Simulation of the Effect of a Centripetal Wing Spoiler on the Flow Aerodynamics of a Sports Car

This study presents a numerical analysis of the flow around an Audi R8 sports car and the effect of adding a National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) 6412 base profile wing. The mass and momentum conservation laws are solved using Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS) equations. The turbulence is simulated using the realizable k–ε model, and the pressure–velocity coupling is solved using the semi-implicit method for pressure-linked equations (SIMPLE). The analysis was performed in the ANSYS Fluent-19 numerical code. The numerical results were validated with experimental data and numerical simulations from other studies in the open literature on vehicles without wings. The analyses included quantifying drag, lift, lateral forces, and their respective coefficients. When the wing was attached to the rear of the vehicle, there was a considerable increase in the aerodynamic load with an increase in drag. Therefore, the wing used in this study represented an effective balance of forces. Furthermore, the interaction of the centripetal wing with the flow around the vehicle was identified along with its role in assisting during curved flow or, equivalently, when the vehicle was cornering.