Calculation and optimization of the aerodynamic drag of an open-wheel race car

Aerodynamic drag reduction is one of the important factors to make a race car achieve a faster lap time. Additional drag is produced due to the air channel for radiator cooling of the student designed open-wheel race car. This paper presents the aerodynamic drag optimization of the race car through studying the effect of the angle of the radiator air channel numerically using ANSYS Fluent and experimentally using wind tunnel. A reduction of 12.7% in drag coefficient compared to the current setup is achieved by tilting the angle of cooling channel to 72.5 degree. Numerical results and experimental results show good agreement, a maximum deviation of 7.7% between numerical and experimental drag coefficient for case of the race car with driver included