Part 1: Formula Student Front Wing Project

Pic: Stefan Ruitenberg

Hello there!

Another year of University has passed, and so this means I can get on with some of my own personal design projects. As you may know, I am very interested in Aerodynamics, and so have set about designing and full aerodynamic package for a Formula Student race car in my spare time.

Being a student at Huddersfield University, I often interact with the Formula Student team (Team Hare) and so with me being a fan of Aerodynamics, specifically race car aero, I have set about optimising the first aero package we have ever incorporated onto a Formula Student vehicle.

Pic: Stefan Ruitenberg

The three images shown here are my full geometry so I can show you them. The image below has very similar geometry to our 2017 car, albeit different end plates to maximise the flow outboard of the front wheels. This is scheduled for CFD through ANSYS in a couple of days.

The image above is another iteration I created using geometry very similar to the 2017 car. While our car had tremendous downforce/drag ratio and efficiency results, we saw a sizable loss through cornering. So while driving linear, the car worked well, it was under an angular motion that the car struggled, so I have set myself a goal of trying to improve this over summer. Stay tuned for some juicy numbers on that.

Pic: Stefan Ruitenberg

The final variant seen above sees a change to the central section endplates, which support more aerofoils. My idea is to move the flow around the suspension A-arms and the pushrod actuated rods - which normally are quite draggy. as well as the tyres. Moreover, this is a fairly similar design in FS as my research shows. I think it looks epic.

 I believe it is very important to get a good background on wing design, and so I am currently reading a lot, as well as trial and error with my Solidworks/Ansys designs. Never jump in at the deep end I say, but enjoy the learning ride. I would recommend reading Race Car Aerodynamics from Joseph Katz and this post by Racecar Engineering's Gemma Hatton - http://www.racecar-engineering.com/articles/tech-explained-formula-student-aerodynamics/  - It's fantastic!

Anyway, I hoped you enjoyed this little post, I'll report back when I have some accurate data, where I will correlate it with some wind tunnel testing. Yep, I won't be doing a HRT in F1 ;)