Title: Optimisation of a vehicle shape by CFD code

Authors: Calogero D'Anca, Antonio Mancuso, Gabriele Virzi Mariotti

Addresses: Dipartimento di Meccanica Universita di Palermo, Viale delle Scienze, 90128 Palermo, Italy. ' Dipartimento di Meccanica Universita di Palermo, Viale delle Scienze, 90128 Palermo, Italy. ' Dipartimento di Meccanica Universita di Palermo, Viale delle Scienze, 90128 Palermo, Italy

Abstract: In this paper, fluid dynamics simulations have been executed using a CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) commercial code, on a Maserati Biturbo mod. 222 - 1988. At first some surfaces are optimised, choosing the more important ones for the reduction of the resistance, by a manual variation of their geometry, hence a large surface is optimised in an automatic way, by means of an own software, developed in the MatLab environment, returning the optimised surface according to a specific objective function (the resistance in this paper). The aerodynamics resistance results are given under the form of aerodynamics penetration coefficient CD, taking into account the vehicle shape effect, the speed, the fluid properties and the orientation.

Keywords: aerodynamic resistance; CFD simulations; shape optimisation; computational fluid dynamics; vehicle shape.

DOI: 10.1504/IJVD.2005.006603

International Journal of Vehicle Design, 2005 Vol.38 No.1, pp.26 - 41

Published online: 25 Mar 2005 *

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