Feasibility Study of a Fan-Driven Device Generating Downforce for Road Cars

Maciej Szudarek, Adam Piechna and Janusz Piechna
Additional contact information
Maciej Szudarek: Institute of Metrology and Biomedical Engineering, Warsaw University of Technology, 02-525 Warszawa, Poland
Adam Piechna: Institute of Automatic Control and Robotics, Warsaw University of Technology, 02-525 Warszawa, Poland
Janusz Piechna: Institute of Aeronautics and Applied Mechanics, Warsaw University of Technology, 00-665 Warszawa, Poland

Energies, 2022, vol. 15, issue 15, 1-27

Abstract: This paper, submitted to the special issue of Energies “Future of Road Vehicle Aerodynamics”, proposes and justifies the use of an old idea of generating downforce by actively drawing air from under the car body and exhausting it to the outside. Instead of traditional moving mechanical-curtain elements, a new method for sealing the clearance under the body with an air curtain is proposed. Basic information on the geometry and flow characteristics of such a solution suitable for use in automobiles is presented. The performance of such a fan-driven device generating downforce is studied over a wide range of driving speeds. The device allows for significantly improved vehicle acceleration, shorter braking distances, and extension of the range of safe cornering speeds. The paper shows the successive stages of development of the idea, from the 2D model to the 3D model, and an attempt to implement the device on a sports car. The distributions of pressure, velocity, pathlines and values of aerodynamic forces obtained at assumed fan compressions for different driving speeds are presented. The advantages and disadvantages of the analyzed device are discussed, and further optimization directions are outlined.

Keywords: computational fluid dynamics; CFD; car aerodynamics; fan-driven downforce generator; peripheral jet; aerodynamic downforce (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/15/15/5549/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/15/15/5549/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jeners:v:15:y:2022:i:15:p:5549-:d:876478

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().