Everything You Need to Know About

Aerodynamics

By Julien Versailles
 What is it?
• The study of forces
and the resulting
motion of objects
through the air
or
• The study of the
flow of air around
and through an
object
 Drag
• A mechanical force caused by an object moving through a fluid (liquid or
gas)
• The solid body must be in contact with the fluid
• There must be motion between the object and the fluid
• It is a vector quantity having both a magnitude and direction acting in a
direction opposite to the moving object
 Lift and Downforce
• Lift is the force that directly
opposes the weight of an
object and holds it in the air
• Lift occurs when a solid
object turns a moving flow of
gas
• A negative lift causes
downforce, which is the force
that acts to push an object
closer to the ground
• Lift and downforce are
basically the same except that
downforce acts downward and
lift acts upward
 Airplanes
• For any airplane to fly,
you must lift the weight of
the airplane
• The airfoils (wings)
generate most of the lift to
hold the plane in the air
• Jet engines or propellers
provide the thrust to push
the airplane forward
through the air
 Newton’s 3rd Law
• For every action (force) in nature there is an equal and
opposite reaction
• helps to explain the generation of lift from an airplane wing
• The air is deflected downward by the action of the wing,
and in reaction the wing is pushed upward
 The Bernoulli Effect
• If a fluid (gas or liquid) flows around an object at different speeds,
the slower moving fluid will exert more pressure than the faster
moving fluid on the object
•The object will
then be forced
toward the
faster moving
fluid
•The wing of an
airplane is
shaped so that
the air moving
over the top of
the wing moves
faster than the
air beneath it
•Since the air
pressure under
the wing is
greater than that
above the wing,
lift is produced
 Racecars
• The total aerodynamic
package of the racecar is
emphasized now more than
ever before
• The focus of their efforts is
on the aerodynamic forces of
downforce and drag
• Downforce is necessary for
maintaining speed through
the corners
• The efficient design of a
ground effects racecar is
based on a downforce/drag
compromise
 The Chassis
• The shape of the chassis is
similar to an upside down
airfoil
• The shape of the underbody
creates an area of low pressure
between the bottom of the car
and the racing surface
• The shape of the chassis sucks
the car to road, which results in
higher cornering speeds
 Wings
• Airfoils or wings are
also used in the front
and rear of the car in
an effort to generate
more downforce
• The efficiency of a
wing is the
downforce/drag ratio
 The Front Wing Assembly
• The first part of the car to
meet the air mass
• The flow field here is
better than at other parts
of the car because the air
here has been disturbed
the least
• The wing is designed to
produce downforce and
guide the air as it moves
toward the body and rear
of the car
 The Rear Wing Assembly
• The turbulent air moving
toward the rear of the car
will impact the efficiency
of the rear wing
• The rear wing is not as
aerodynamically efficient
as the front wing, yet it
must generate more than
twice as much downforce
to balance the car
 Streamlines of Road Cars
• As the air flows over the hood of a regular car, it's loses pressure, but
when it reaches the windscreen, it again comes up against a barrier,
and briefly reaches a higher pressure
• The higher-pressure area in front of the windscreen creates a
downforce
• As the higher-pressure air in front of the windscreen travels over the
windscreen, it accelerates, causing the pressure to drop
• lower pressure literally lifts on the car's roof as the air passes over it
 The Underside of a Car
• The underside of the car is responsible for creating lift or
downforce
• If a car's front end is lower than the rear end, then the
widening gap between the underside and the road creates
a vacuum, or low-pressure area, and therefore "suction"
that equates to downforce
 Flow Detachment
• Once the air makes it's way to the rear window, the notch created by
the window dropping down to the trunk leaves a vacuum, or low
pressure space that the air is not able to fill properly
• As a result, a continuous vacuum sucks in the opposite direction
• the resulting lower pressure creates lift that then acts upon the
surface area of the trunk
 Applying Aerodynamics
• To appreciate the importance of aerodynamics as applied to motor vehicles it must be realized
that, as driving speeds increase, the power needed to overcome air drag multiplies at a very rapid
rate
• As an example, let us apply this formula to a car whose engine has to generate 18 HP to
overcome the air drag at 80 km/h
• The power needed to double the speed to 160 km is shown in the following example. This is
eight times the power needed to travel at 80 km
• If it were possible to reduce the drag by 25% we would need only 108 HP and fuel consumption
would be about one-quarter less than what it was before
• It is now obvious why the proper shaping and streamlining of a car pays very significant
dividends at little extra cost
 Why You Need Aerodynamics
• Not only can better
aerodynamics help
improve the speed of a
car, but it can also better
the efficiency of a car
• Proper aerodynamic
shaping, has been found to
be the most effective and
least costly method of
increasing fuel economy
and performance,
especially at higher speeds
 Other Important Aspects of
Aerodynamics
• Automotive aerodynamics
also plays an important role
in other related areas
including:
high-speed traction,
sensitivity to crosswinds,
efficient cooling (engine,
drive train, exhaust system,
and brakes), keeping the
front windshield, the
windows, the mirrors and the
headlights clean, and last but
not least, reducing wind
noise to a minimum