Let’s start the basic understanding of car aerodynamics. The way that air interacts with our vehicles is not always noticeable at low speeds or on days when there is not a lot of wind outside. There are several factors that can greatly impact a car’s acceleration, handling, and fuel economy, but air resistance has the greatest impact at high speeds and on windy days.
During this process, aerodynamics plays an important role, which can be attributed to its science. This topic of aerodynamics can be understood as a study of forces and the motion of objects through the air as a result of those forces. Since the beginning of motoring history, cars have been designed with aerodynamics in mind and, over the past several decades, automakers have developed a variety of technologies to make cutting through that “wall” of air easier and with less impact on day-to-day driving activities.
Car Aerodynamics: A Brief Concept about Aerodynamics
Aerodynamics is a branch of science that studies the interaction between gases and moving bodies. Due to the fact that the most common gas we encounter is air, aerodynamics is primarily focused on the forces of lift and drag generated by the passage of air over and around solid bodies, due to the fact that air carries air.
A variety of different forms of construction are designed using aerodynamic principles, including buildings, bridges, and even soccer balls.
However, planes and automobiles are of the greatest concern when it comes to the use of aerodynamic principles in their design. In the field of aerodynamics, researchers examine how fluids and moving solid objects interact with each other in order to explain how they move. Fuel consumption, speed, and visual design are three factors that have a significant influence on the consumer’s perception of priorities.
What is Aerodynamic Drag?
There is no doubt that drag is one of the most powerful aerodynamic forces in the world, as it applies to almost everything that moves through the air. An aircraft’s motion in the air is opposed by a force called drag, which forces it to slow down as it moves through the air. There is a tendency for air to generate drag when it encounters a solid object, which leads to the air being pushed in that direction.
As you can imagine, drag is in most cases undesirable, since it requires a great deal of power to overcome it. This is the case with automobiles and aircraft. In some cases, though, drag can actually prove to be beneficial, such as with parachutes, for example, in which case drag is beneficial.
There is a value called the drag coefficient that is used to describe the amount of drag that an object experiences on the ground. There are several factors that affect the number of particles that are being produced:-
- the shape of the object,
- the speed and roughness of its surface,
- the density of the air, and
- Whether the flow is smooth or turbulent.
The air pressure would be causing drag if it were placed against the face of the object, friction would be acting along its sides, and potentially a relatively negative pressure would be acting on its back or suction.
There is a range of (0.25 to 0.35) drag coefficient for modern automobiles due to the difficulties involved in calculating this coefficient. Therefore, in order to determine the wind tunnel’s capacity, computer simulations and wind tunnel experiments are usually used.
Defining the Aerodynamics of Automobiles
Since the beginning of the automobile’s history, vehicle bodies have been designed in such a way that they are aerodynamic. Automobile engineers began to realize a few decades ago that wind resistance significantly hindered the ability of cars to attain high speeds as engines became stronger and cars became faster.
There is no doubt that drag is an influential consideration, but it cannot be the only one. Even though the lift is desired for planes, it can be dangerous if it happens on an automobile. As the speed of the car increases, the wind exerts a downward force on it, which makes it more difficult for the driver to maintain good control of steering and braking.
The aerodynamic concept of automobiles has been developed by engineers by devising a number of ways of achieving, for instance:-
- There are a number of rounded shapes and designs that are applied to the exterior of cars as a result of airflow being channeled so that, as a result, the air is able to flow around the car with minimum resistance.
- High-performance cars actually were installed with components that are built to move the air smoothly across the underside of the vehicle so that it runs smoothly.
- To achieve the aerodynamic concept, the cars were equipped with a spoiler which is also known as a rear wing, which helps to keep the air from lifting the wheels and making the car unsteady at high speeds.
- Aerodynamic principles are used frequently in racing for cars and trucks as well, and many of the same principles can be applied to both.
- In order to optimize the aerodynamics of automobiles as efficiently as possible, engineers use computer simulations and wind tunnel tests on scale models and actual vehicles in order to perfectly fine-tune them.
- It is also done so that the front and rear wheels generate the optimum amount of downward force while generating the least amount of drag possible which leads to high speed with less oil consumption.
- The drag is increased, which in turn leads to increased fuel consumption, which in turn limits the speed of the vehicle, so it is important to keep these two forces in balance.
Principles of Aerodynamics
A few fundamental elements make up the aerodynamics concept, and based on these principles, it can be predicted that flight and automobiles nowadays could achieve such excellent speeds with the least amount of fuel consumption.
The Fundamental principles influencing the concept of aerodynamics are as mentioned below:-
Lifting forces
An object that is lifted is caused to rise by a force called a lifting force, it is the opposite of gravity, meaning it is the force that opposes gravity in every way. As a result, the hot air that is inside a hot air balloon will provide a lift to the balloon because it is lighter than the air under it, on its way to the sky, hot air carries the balloon along with it.
At the helicopter’s tip, rotor blades provide the lift that enables the aircraft to fly. It is due to the movement of the helicopter through the air that it rises. The wings of an airplane are responsible for providing lift to the aircraft. There are a number of factors that contribute to the ability of an airplane to fly, such as its wings.
This is how the lifting force operates in the aircraft:-
- The top of an airplane’s wing is curved, while the bottom is flat, because of the form, air flows faster over the top than under the bottom.
- As a result of this situation, the pressure of the air is comparatively less, which causes it, as well as the airplane to which it is mounted, to move up.
- The air pressure in many aircraft is adjusted using curves, and that’s why the curves are installed.
This is how the lifting force operates in the boats:-
- This principle is used on sailboats as well, as the sails of a boat are similar to a wing.
- As the winds push the sails attached to the boats, a lifting force works and helps the boat to move forward without having an engine.
Weight of a structure
All of us are aware of the fact that every object on the earth has a weight that comes from gravity, which is responsible for pulling objects down and creating this force. In order for a plane to travel, it has to be propelled in the opposite direction of gravity so that it can go forward.
When it comes to pushing an object, the force needed is determined by how much weight the object possesses. The more the weight of the structure the more pressure is needed in order to move it forward. The amount of thrust needed by a kite to rise is much less than what would be needed by a jumbo plane.
Dragging force
When something is slowing down because of some force, that force is called drag. The friction makes it difficult for an object to be moved. Running or walking through water is more difficult than walking or running through the air because water tends to have a higher drag coefficient than air because it has higher surface tension.
An object’s shape has a significant influence on the amount of drag it generates when it is moving. Round surfaces are less likely to drag compared to flat surfaces because they have a smaller surface area.
Compared to wide surfaces, narrow surfaces have a lower drag coefficient than those that are wide. In order to produce the most drag, there has to be as much air coming into contact with the surface as possible.
Thrusting forces
Whenever thrust is applied, it is going to have the exact opposite effect as drag. Generally speaking, thrust refers to the motion of something forward as it moves forward. For a car, for instance, it would be necessary to have a higher amount of thrust than drag in order to keep moving forward, just as an engine would be able to supply thrust to a car.
In the same way, jet engines will be able to provide propulsion for larger aircraft as well. Unlike a glider, which has no engines or propellers to propel it, it can only fly until the drag causes it to slow down and force it to land when the drag does not allow it to fly.
Laws behind Aerodynamic Concept
As the assumption of a fluid continuum is assumed in the analysis of aerodynamic problems, fluid dynamics conservation laws can be utilized to address these problems.
There are a few conservation laws of aerodynamics which are mentioned below:-
Mass Conservation
Essentially, the law of conservation of mass specifies that for every system that is closed to additions or subtractions of matter and energy, the mass of the system has to remain constant through time. The mass of a closed system cannot change due to its inability to transfer matter and energy, and, therefore, no additions or removals can be made. Therefore, there is no change in the amount of mass over time.
While the mass of a thing may be rearranged within a space, or the form of the entities associated with that thing may change, it cannot be created nor destroyed according to the law of mass.
Momentum conservation
When the matter is not exchanged in a closed system and external forces are not acting on the system, the total momentum of the system will remain constant. This is a fact that Newton’s laws of motion imply, and that is the law of momentum conservation, also known as Newton’s law of motion.
There are several mathematical formulations of this principle that can be used to illustrate Newton’s Second Law. In a flow of liquid, the momentum can only be changed by external forces, such as viscous forces and weight, which act as external forces.
As a principle of momentum conservation, there are two types of equations that can be used:
- Vector equations and
- Scalar equations.
Energy conservation
An isolated system is said to remain constant in terms of its total energy over time as a result of the law of conservation of energy. According to the energy conservation equation, it is clear that energy cannot be added or subtracted within a flow. Instead, energy is induced by the transfer of heat or the application of work into and out of the particular region of interest.
According to the energy conservation equation, energy is neither given nor taken within a flow. Due to the law of conservation of energy, the first kind of perpetual motion machine can never exist; a perpetual motion device is not capable of supplying a never-ending source of energy to its surroundings without the assistance of an external source of energy.
The scientific explanation behind the Aerodynamic concept in a car
A moving object causes the air that surrounds it to be displaced as it moves through the atmosphere. It is also important to keep in mind that the object is subject to gravity as well as drag. Solid objects like rocks and trees are subjected to drag when they are moved through fluid mediums like air or water. When an object is traveling at a high speed, the drag it experiences increases as the speed of travel increases.
It is important to note that drag directly affects acceleration. It is calculated by dividing the weight of an object by its drag and multiplying that number by its mass. As a reminder, an object’s weight is determined by its mass multiplied by the force of gravity that acts on it. Due to the fact that the moon has less gravity than Earth, your weight would change, however, your mass would not change.
a= (W-D) / m
Where
- Acceleration can be denoted with a
- Weight can be denoted by W
- Drag can be denoted by D
- Mass can be denoted by m.
Acceleration increases the velocity of an object, and at the same time, drag increases as well, eventually reaching the point at which drag equals weight, at which point further acceleration is impossible. Consider the case where we have a car as the object of our equation.
When the car is traveling at a high speed, a greater and greater amount of air is exerted on it, causing it to be restricted in the amount of acceleration it can achieve and limiting it to a certain speed as it accelerates.
Let’s see how these aerodynamics are applied in a car design
Here is a drag coefficient formula:-
Cd= D/ (A*0.5*r*V^2)
Where
- Drag Coefficient can be denoted by Cd
- Drag force is denoted by D
- Density can be denoted by r
- Velocity can be denoted by V.
We need to figure out a significant factor, called the drag coefficient. This needs to be taken into account when applying the aerodynamic concept to the design of a car. An object’s ability to move through the air is one of the most significant factors that determine how easy it is to move through the air.
Generally, the drag coefficient equals the drag multiplied by the density times half the velocity squared times the area. In this case, the drag is multiplied by the velocity times the density of the two materials.
Thus, a car’s aerodynamics is directly affected by its drag coefficient, which determines the car’s aerodynamics feature.
Major forces influencing the aerodynamic concept in automobile design
To improve the aerodynamic behavior of a car, we must all be aware of the air’s behavior and its flow past a car. The two major forces affecting the motion of the car in fluid flow are:-
- Drag Forces
- Lift forces
Drag Force
As the car moves through the atmosphere, a certain amount of energy is lost. This energy is used to overcome the Drag force that is applied to the car. Frontal pressure and rear vacuum are two significant factors that have a large influence on aerodynamic drag in a vehicle.
Frontal pressure in a car
As the air flows around the front of the car in an attempt to move around it, it creates a drag force on the car. Air molecules begin to compress as they approach the front of a car, which causes the pressure of the air in the front of the car to rise as soon as they reach the front.
By minimizing exposed surface areas of the front of the vehicle, as well as by making the curves of the front bumper smooth, and continuous, originating from the line of the bumper, frontal pressure can be reduced and air molecules can pass smoothly through the vehicle.
Rear Vacuum of a car
During the passage of the car through the airflow, a vacuum occurs at the rear of the car due to the flow separation in the airflow. At the rear end of the vehicle, there is an issue called flow detachment that occurs because air molecules cannot fill the empty spaces created by the rear end of the vehicle.
Consequently, this results in the creation of a continuous vacuum zone in the rear area of the vehicle in the opposite direction of the vehicle’s motion. Due to the flow detachments that are caused by the presence of turbulence in the rear end, drag forces are simultaneously increasing due to an increase in drag.
It is necessary to decrease the detachments of the flow in a car in order to reduce drag forces in the car. The process is accomplished by allowing the molecules of air in the atmosphere to follow continuously the contours of the exterior of the car. It is ideal if the rear end of such a vehicle has a long, smooth surface with a gradual slope at the back end in order to achieve this.
In order to avoid a detachment of air molecules from the flow of air towards the end of the car, the shape of the car has been streamlined to ensure air molecules flow smoothly.
Lift Force
Any object that travels through the air will either create a lifting force or a downforce force depending on its speed. There are a number of factors that contribute to this lifting force, but the main one is that the lifting force acts to press down the structure, instead of lifting it up as happens with airplane wings.
Generally, when there is a lifting force present in the hood, roof, and trunk of a car, it results in a low pressure over these areas, which increases the chance of the vehicle rising. There is also a part of the car’s underside that creates lift or downforce, as well as the rear bumper.
An example of this is when an automobile has a lower front end than the rear end, which means that the wider gap between the underside of the car and the road produces a vacuum, which generates a low-pressure area, and thus suction is created, which translates into down force for the vehicle.
Various benefits of aerodynamics in automobiles
The design of cars should take the aerodynamic concept into account at the beginning of the design process, as improved aerodynamics would allow for the following benefits to be achieved:-
- Increases the efficiency of the fuel in cars.
- The Car could reach a much higher speed.
- The aerodynamic design could give a great aesthetic appearance to a car.
- The car could reach at a much higher speed but also with great stability.
- The noise of the car could also get reduced.
Various techniques for evaluating the Aerodynamic concept of a car
Wind tunnel test
The wind tunnel is a facility in which car manufacturers test prototypes of the cars and see how they react to the wind. Wind tunnels simulate the conditions that a car would face when driven forward by anchoring it down and blowing fresh air over the car to simulate the conditions the car would encounter when it drove forward.
The car is fitted with instruments that are used to measure how much lift is being generated at each end of the car when the down force is generated from each end of the car. Attaching small tufts of wool to the body of a car or blowing a stream of smoke across it can make the airflow past it visible, just like attaching small tufts of wool to the body of a car.
Through this evaluation we can justify how the wind takes in its path as it flows over the car. It is also evident that smoke shows how the air is performing in front of and behind the car in terms of its behavior.
Practicality tests
The development of a car for mass production tends to lose some of the aerodynamic purity that was originally incorporated into the design of the car. As a result of cost considerations, sometimes these changes have to be made.
As an example, the installation of a smooth under tray on a car can improve its efficiency in terms of its shape; however, it would cost more money to manufacture this panel, and it could make it more difficult to access components such as a gearbox.
It is also possible that the car can be less aerodynamic than the prototype that had slim-tired tires due to practical considerations, such as the inclusion of wider tires. The car’s sales may be held back if its features are too unfamiliar to its potential buyers if it is planned to be mass-produced.
Stability tests
In order to make a car that slips through the air in a straight line when there is no wind blowing and does not create a force on the side of the car when it is cornering at high speed, which also creates a force on that side of the car, is relatively simple to design, but it is much more difficult in order to make the car stable in the wind blowing against it from the side.
On the side of a car, there is a theoretical point that can be considered as the center of pressure which means that this is where the wind pressure is actually acting. It is possible to design a more stable car if engineers pay attention to the center of pressure along with the balance of forces.
Various parts you can add to increase the aerodynamics of a car
Aerodynamics is one of the most important elements of modern car design, but there is always room for improvement. There are a few parts you can add to your car that will help you improve its aerodynamics if you’re interested:-
A wing in a car
It is generally considered that a wing refers to a large component attached to the rear of a vehicle. There is no difference between an airplane wing and a helicopter wing other than the fact that it is mounted upside down in comparison to a helicopter wing.
A wing’s down force is generated by air flowing over it, and this results in increased traction. As a result, you will be able to turn your car at a higher speed and brake more effectively.
Adding a spoiler at the rear end can be an effective option
There is a difference between spoilers and wings as far as what they do, but they serve a similar purpose. A spoiler is a part of the trunk lid that is mounted just below the rear edge of the lid and is 4 inches to 6 inches high.
The air that moves over the trunk lid is dammed up by the device in order for it to work correctly. Due to the trunk lid being located below the roof, there is a vacuum that results when the trunk lid is pushed down, and as a result, there is more downforce created.
Air Dam in the front of the car
The purpose of a front dam is not only to improve the aesthetics of the vehicle but to also redirect air to improve the vehicle’s aerodynamics. In fact, most people add a front dam for aesthetic reasons.
By reducing the amount of air flowing underneath the car, a front air dam rises down force and decreases drag, which is achieved by reducing the amount of air flowing underneath the vehicle.
There are a few drawbacks to air dams, however, including their high price. There are a number of air dams made of plastic and carbon fiber available on the market, but unfortunately, these parts tend to break a lot more easily than other parts.
Raking
Basically, the act of raking a car involves lowering the front end in order to form a slight wedge shape underneath the car. As a result, you will be able to create suction under your car, which will help improve your grip, speed, and cornering ability.
As a result, this modification may not work well on all vehicles, since the suspension system may become unbalanced as a result.
Add a diffuser to your car
It is a piece of trim that has a shaped shape and is installed under the rear end of the vehicle. A diffuser is used on race cars with the purpose of sucking the car onto the track in order to increase levels of grip on the track. It is called an aerodynamic grip when this type of grip is used.
There will, however, be some cars that will not work with this solution. It is not always possible to install a diffuser on a car with a body shape which makes it difficult to do so.
