RBF – MORPH FSI Activity: motorsport application Indy Car

ASWC 2013 DALLARA AWARDED

RBF Morph can speed up your design with several examples of internal and external flow. A specific example of usage of RBF Morph in motor sport will be given by Dallara with examples on the Indy Car IR5.

In this study, we have  parameterized a CFD model for complex shape change directly from the RBF-Morph solution, to pair it with ANSYS DesignXplorer, and to set up the automated exploration of the design space to deliver the optimal design shape.

Test case description

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Indy configuration of the IR5 formula car: It’s important to investigate the front wing deformation to:

  • Evaluate the influence on the front loads (performance)
  • Evaluate the maximum deformation (structural safety and rules book)

Detailed materials description and constraints imposition for each physical component. Particular attention has been taken in order to correctly represent the carbon properties in terms of lamination and fibers orientation.

Solution Workflow

FEM Modes:

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The modal analysis of the FEA model shows that the first 5 modes are significant (shape and frequency) to describe the deformation of the front wing assembly.

CFD Model

  • Freestream velocity 50 m/s (V 180 km/h)
  • Steady flow simulation
  • Compressible viscid (RANS model) fluid

An iterative loop has been implemented to obtain the static aeroelastic equilibrium. The modal convergence is achieved after just 4!!

PERFORMANCE: The aeroelastic deformation produces a quite small displacement. The aerodynamic performance is not influenced in this front wing configuration.

STRUCTURAL SAFETY: The maximum displacement is complitely acceptable (design and rules check), according to the structural characteristics.

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Key Benefits

  • The RBF-morph tool has been tested for complex applications and it proves to well perform
  • The aeroelastic loop has been implemented thanks to RBF-morph. The resulting displacement solution and loads distributions are consistent with the expectations
  • A rear wing slope application has been tested

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