Application of Rapid Prototyping Technologies to Wind Tunnel Testing of High-Performance Vehicles
Year: 2019
Type: conference-paper
Abstract: Aerodynamics is a crucial area in high-performance vehicle design.Downforce determines turn performance and drag limits maximum speed in straight lines.To obtain the best aerodynamic design, engineers resort to many tools such as computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and multidisciplinary design optimization (MDO), in order to test designs, predict characteristics and optimize shape.However, every design that will be produced has to be validated in wind tunnels, which are employed to evaluate numerical predictions, and to correct aerodynamic elements shape, position, and incidence.Automotive wind tunnel test models are usually manufactured with machined aluminum, through a slow and expensive machining process.In this paper, we present a method developed at the Aeronautics Institute of Technology (ITA) to reduce test model manufacturing costs.We applied the fused filament fabrication (FFF) technology to build wind tunnel models, with polylactic acid (PLA) as raw material, obtaining a cheaper and faster process.A prototype was tested in the subsonic wind tunnel TA-2, located at the Institute of Aeronautics and Space (IAE), in São José dos Campos, Brazil.The results suggest that this method could become a powerful tool for productivity in automotive research and development.
Language: English
Subfield: Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering
Field: Engineering
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Awards: G233101189, G29316538, G7408428586, G8262246763
OpenAlex ID: W2972048627