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  • Writer's pictureJunghyun (Andy) Kim

Aerodynamic automobile shape optimization by incorporating reverse shape design method

Sponsored by ASDL


Research Motivation

In modern automotive industry market, there have been a lot of state-of-art methodologies to perform a conceptual design of a car. In the conceptual design stage, determining the external shape of a car is one of the main issues because it is a representative multi-attirbute problem arising between stylists and aerodynamic engineers. Each area requires arduous tasks to claim its own arguments; stylists use computer-aided design (CAD) to create a basic shape whereas aerodynamic engineers evaluate corresponding aerodynamic performance via computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and wind tunnel experiment. Unequivocally, converging to an agreement in a multi-criterion problem is a collection of highly iterative, multi-disciplinary, and complex engineering decision making procedures.


Key Idea

To overcome the issues, advanced design methods such as Design of Experiment are incorporated with a new geometry shape modeling method and simulation-driven engineering tools.


Overview of the proposed methodology


Results

As the baseline, an Audi A6 is modeled by the proposed methodology and explored through CFD analysis for model validation. After the validation process is successfully completed, six design variables around the rear shape are chosen. A significant amount of the drag coefficient reduction is obtained from the optimum configuration compared to the baseline.

Publication

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