CAD-Based Design Optimization of a Race Car Front Wing

 

Automated meshing enables push-button design optimization.

If you have ever seen the front wing of a Formula 1 vehicle, you would think you are staring at a piece of modern art and not one of the greatest contributors to the downforce and handling of the vehicle. Current front wing designs are intricate and no two are the same, a testament to the complexity of the flowfield experienced by each vehicle as it makes its way around the track. Simplifying the design and looking at just the twist distribution, there is still little to no agreement found. Hence the purpose of this study. Can we identify the optimal twist distribution for the front wing of a race car that maximizes downforce without increasing drag? It turns out that we can.

By using ModelCenter from Phoenix Integration as an integration platform, Pointwise to generate the meshes, and AcuSolve to run the CFD calculations, push-button design optimization was achieved. In fact, the model-centric process was built on parametric geometry so that a single mesh could be mapped effortlessly from one design iteration to the next and the final output is an actual CAD model that can be used for further analysis.

Topics covered in this webinar:

  • Formulating the optimization problem including the model and design variables and setting up the integration platform
  • Generating a baseline mesh that isolates the area of interest and automating the parametric mapping for each design iteration
  • Locating the optimum twist distribution for maximum downforce using a genetic algorithm on a response surface
 
Ilya Tolchinsky

Ilya Tolchinsky

Phoenix Integration

Ilya has been fascinated with applying Optimization techniques to engineering problems since graduate school. He started his career as an Aerodynamicist working for Rolls-Royce Engines, where he learned how to do engineering design using traditional methods. Throughout his career, Ilya has helped to create various engineering design tools, primarily in the Aerospace sector. For the last six years, he has been working as an Application Engineer for Phoenix Integration. In this role, he helps clients from top engineering firms to understand the potential of Process Integration and Design Optimization and to apply this technology within their business.

 
Travis Carrigan

Travis Carrigan

Pointwise, Inc.

Travis Carrigan leads our Business Development Team. He received his M.S. in aerospace engineering from the University of Texas at Arlington in May 2011, where his thesis subject was “Aerodynamic Shape Optimization of a Vertical Axis Wind Turbine.” Mr. Carrigan received his B.S. in aerospace engineering in 2009 from UTA and began working at Pointwise as an intern on our Technical Support Team in 2008.

 
Joshua Dawson

Joshua Dawson

Pointwise, Inc.

Josh Dawson joined our Business Development Team in January of 2019. Prior to Pointwise, Mr. Dawson worked for two years as a Department of Defense Contractor with Applied Research Associates in simulating extreme thermal environments following high explosive detonations. Mr. Dawson earned a B.S. in Psychology from Texas A&M University in 2004. In 2015, Mr. Dawson earned an M.S. in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Texas at Arlington.

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