Efeitos da aerodinâmica no desempenho e eficiência de veículos sedans elétricos

Abstract

Electric automotive models have been conquering the market and it is increasingly necessary to understand points of improvement in their projects. This work had as main purpose to analyze and measure the relationship between the main aerodynamic coefficients with the performance in maneuvers and efficiency in the battery consumption of electric sedan automotive vehicles. Aerodynamic coefficients were obtained through fluid-dynamic computational numerical simulations by the finite volume method performed through Ansys 2022 R2® in which real vehicle models were used as simplified CAD representations at a scale of 1:10. With the data obtained after the simulations for different slip angles, data tables related to aerodynamics were imported for a standard electric sedan vehicle model available in the library of the vehicle dynamics software CarSim 2022.0®. Test procedures for maximum speed, braking distance and crosswind were created to assess vehicle forces and performance during the tests. In addition, endurance simulations were made where each model ran a track of a virtual test field in which the energy consumption was evaluated in the period. Finally, a matrix of correlation was created between the aerodynamic parameters with the results obtained in the virtual tests in order to quantify the relationship between them. A large negative relationship was noted between drag and maximum speed and energy efficiency, and a highly positive relationship between downforce and braking performance, in line with theoretical definitions.