Honors College Theses

Publication Date

4-23-2024

Major

Mechanical Engineering (B.S.)

Document Type and Release Option

Thesis (open access)

Faculty Mentor

Dr. Marcel Ilie

Abstract

Aerodynamic forces developed by automobiles have destabilizing effects at high speed. These forces tend to skew toward a vehicle’s rear which can present safety concerns, especially for rear-wheel-drive automobiles like the Mazda Miata. To address oversteer and high-speed instability, a vehicle’s design can be tailored to bring about aerodynamic balance and improve traction. LiDAR was used to bring the physical automobile into the digital space. Then, a splitter and diffuser were added to reduce the magnitude of the destabilizing forces. Next, the size and shape of the rear-wing required to balance the vehicle was calculated using a combination of parameters from 2D and 3D analyses. Then, the rear-wing was solid modeled, and computational fluid analysis was performed on three geometry configurations. To evaluate effectiveness, the unmodified geometry was compared to the modified configuration and results were analyzed numerically. Effectiveness was recorded from the CFD model in terms of aerodynamic lift, drag, and moment. Finally, aerodynamic parameters were imported into vehicle simulation software, and performance improvements were assessed in terms of lap time reduction.

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