Experimental analysis of the flow around an airfoil under ground and downforce effects

Abstract

All postulates in applied aerodynamics regarding the study of flow in airfoils have the primary purpose of discovering the relations of lift and drag forces. The main purpose of the present work is to study the relationship between the negative lift force (known as downforce) of an arched airfoil for racing car purposes; with its distance from the ground, characterizing the ground effect. The aerodynamic drag force under these same conditions is also evaluated. Furthermore, the aerodynamic behavior of the wing is evaluated under the same conditions with the presence and absence of plates installed at the tip of the wing, known as endplates, which would theoretically reduce the wingtip vortices of the airfoil. For this purpose, a small wind tunnel, an aerodynamic scale, a Pitot tube, and a physical assembly of the wing coupled to the measurement system are used; being, therefore, a mostly experimental work.