Proceedings of the ASME 2011 International Design Engineering Technical Conferences & Computers and Information in Engineering Conference IDETC/CIE 2011 August 29-31, 2011, Washington, DC, USA DETC2011- 48308 DOWN FORCE CONTROL OF THE LOW VELOCITY RACING CAR USING ACTIVE AERODYNAMIC INVERSE WINGS Ahmad Barari Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science, University of Ontario Institute of Technology, Oshawa, Canada ahmad.barari@uoit.ca Fereydoon Diba Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science, University of Ontario Institute of Technology, Oshawa, Canada fereydoon.diba@uoit.ca Ebrahim Esmailzadeh Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science, University of Ontario Institute of Technology, Oshawa, Canada ezadeh@uoit.ca ABSTRACT A common denominator in all types of racing cars is the need for more traction and road holding, which is limited in traction to the capability of the dynamics of the vehicle, and its tires. Accurate modeling and formulation of the vehicle behavior helps to determine its cornering limits, road stability and handling. A design solution, based on the properties of an aerodynamic system, is developed to study the dynamic performance of a small size racing car. It is shown that the aerodynamic system increases the capability by algorithmic supply of the desired down-forces. The real-time adjustment of the airfoil combinations requires detailed analysis and formulation of the dynamic properties of the vehicle. Also the aerodynamic properties of the configuration of airfoils’ system should be considered. In this paper, implementation of an active aerodynamics inverted wings is investigated for a low-speed, high-down-force application in a typical Formula racing vehicle and detailed analysis and formulation are presented. INTRODUCTION Over the past 30 years, the race car industry has become a leader of technology innovation in automotive engineering and racings teams attempt to utilize their own latest technologies [1]. The dynamic behavior of racing cars has significant affects on the performance of racing teams and hence, the vehicle dynamics enhancement for racing cars is a crucial issue. On the other hand, the current open-wheel race car performance depends on the effectiveness and efficiency of its aerodynamics [2]. Generally, increasing the traction and stability of racing car could improve its performance. The tire traction force plays important role in the longitudinal dynamics of vehicle. This force is a function of frictional coefficient between road and tire and of the vertical load on tire [3]. The pneumatic tires, which are used for racing cars have special characteristic to generate more traction force and their frictional coefficients are more complicated than what are typically seen in a regular pneumatic tire [4]. On the other hand, by increasing the vertical force, the traction force of tire would increase and the vehicle acceleration performance would be enhanced. The lateral dynamic behavior of the vehicle is related to the tire lateral force. Similar to the tire traction force, the tire lateral force is a function of frictional coefficient and vertical force [3]. Furthermore, the acceleration of a car can be illustrated by a simple expression: (1) m downforce g on Accelerati max max       Proceedings of the ASME 2011 International Design Engineering Technical Conferences & Computers and Information in Engineering Conference IDETC/CIE 2011 August 28-31, 2011, Washington, DC, USA DETC2011-4 1 Copyright © 2011 by ASME Downloaded From: http://proceedings.asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/ on 01/18/2016 Terms of Use: http://www.asme.org/about-asme/terms-of-use