Probleemstelling:

The UGent Racing team has been founded in 2020 and is currently developing their first electric competition car for the 2022 Formula Student season. The Formula Student competitions are a series of engineering competitions held annually in various European countries like Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Portugal, and Italy. With UGent Racing, we focus on the electric and driverless cup. The competition is not won solely by the team with the fastest car, but rather by the team with the best overall package of construction, performance, and financial and sales planning.

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Figure 1: Aerodynamic package on a Formula Student car [1]

The aerodynamic team is responsible for developing the total aerodynamic package on the car for the UGent Racing team. The main task of this team is to improve the aerodynamic efficiency of the car. This implies increasing the downforce to improve the cornering speed, while limiting the side effect of drag. This aerodynamic package includes the front wing, rear wing, endplates of the rear wing, sidepod area, undertray and diffuser. In this master thesis, the front wing will be the main subject.

Figure 2: F1 2022 front wing comparison

The front wing is the front most aerodynamic device that controls all incoming aero over the rest of the car. It should be designed in such a way that it creates downforce on the front wheels to generate grip, while effectively passing the airflow over the rest of the car.

To further develop and improve our race car, the UGent Racing team would also like to start investigating the possibility of suspension-controlled active aerodynamics. An example of this can be seen on the DUT16 car of TU Delft (Figure 2). Before this can be implemented on our own race car, an exploratory study should be performed to provide enough information on how this system works and how it can be used to our advantage.

Figure 3: DUT16 by TU Delft

[1] IljaÅ¾, J., Škerget, L., Štrakl, M., & Marn, J. (2016). Optimization of SAE Formula Rear Wing. Strojniški Vestnik - Journal of Mechanical
Engineering, 62(5), 263–272. https://doi.org/10.5545/sv-jme.2016.3240

Doelstelling:

The objective of the present thesis is to develop the front wing of the UGent Racing car. This will be executed as follows:

Literature review: A comprehensive literature review should be performed on the current state-of-the-art rear wing of other formula student race cars, as well as how these comply to the
competition rules. Before the design of the front wing, fundamental knowledge should be gathered to understand how and why the airfoils and endplates are beneficial to the aerodynamics of the car. For the exploratory study, knowledge should be gathered on how the front wing angle can be controlled.
Design: Once good fundamental knowledge is gathered on all important parameters for the front wing, it should be designed. First, a parametric CFD model will be constructed. Subsequently, this model will be included in an optimization loop, so the simulation time has to be acceptable to do this. Multiple iterations will be done to optimize the design using CFD simulations. This design should also include the possibility to incorporate a connection to the suspension of the car to allow for suspension-controlled front wing angle.
Analysis: The aerodynamic influences of ground effects as well as the effect of varying front wing angle under different speeds and road conditions should be studied. The effect of the flexibility of the wing should be analyzed using the coupling tool CoCoNuT (https://pyfsi.github.io/coconut/). Here the developed CFD model should be coupled to a structural model to take into account fluid-structure interaction (FSI).
Exploratory study: perform research on the usage of the suspension travel for control of the front wing angle of the UGent Racing car.