Numerical Simulation of Flow Field Around The Race Car in Case Stationary Wheel And Rotating Wheels

NUMERICAL SIMULATION OF FLOW FIELD AROUND THE RACE CAR IN CASE STATIONARY WHEEL AND ROTATING WHEELS

*Tien Phuc Dang

State Key Laboratory of Advanced Design and Manufacture for Vehicle Body, Hunan University, Changsha, China and Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

*Corresponding Author

 Zhengqi Gu and Zhen Chen

State Key Laboratory of Advanced Design and Manufacture for Vehicle Body, Hunan University, Changsha, China

 Abstract

 Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to gain a better understanding of the flow field structure around the race car in two cases: stationary wheel and rotating wheel. In addition, this paper also illustrates and clarifies the influence of wheel rotation on the aerodynamic characteristics around the race car.

Design/methodology/approach – The author uses steady Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) equations with the Realizable k-ε model to study model open-wheel race car. Two cases are considered, a rotating wheel and stationary wheel.

Findings – The results obtained from the study are presented graphically, pressure, velocity distribution, the flow field structure, lift coefficient (Cl) and drag coefficient (C) for two cases and the significant influence of rotating case on flow field structure around wheel and aerodynamic characteristics of race car. The decreases in Cd and Cld values in the rotating case for the race car are 16.83 and 13.25 per cent, respectively, when compared to the stationary case.

Originality/value – Understanding the flow field structures and aerodynamic characteristics around the race car in two cases by the steady RANS equations with the Realizable k-ε turbulence model.

Keywords: Numerical simulation, Computational fluid dynamics, Aerodynamic characteristics, Flow field, Rotating wheel, Stationary wheel.