Riassunto analitico
The study of F1 vehicles aerodynamics took a crucial importance in the last decades and its aims
are mainly two: increase the downforce and decrease the drag. About the second target, one of the
main source of drag are the wheels, with a drag contribution of about 30 − 40%. This high value
is due mainly because on race it’s not allowed to screen the wheels, but they have to stay exposed.
There are three ways to execute vehicles aerodynamic studies: testing the car directly on track,
testing the car inside the wind tunnel or having a Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) approach
using proper software. The three are listed in decreasing order of precision and cost, and in this
study it’s been taken a CFD approach.
This study has then the purpose to analyse the aerodynamic behaviour, which means vortices
and laminar-turbulent boundary layer transition, of a F1 wheel’s car, non-deformable, without
hub, but taking into account the rotation, the portion “compressed” on the soil, and the motion of
the soil itself. In order to achieve this study, using OpenFOAM, three turbulent models have been
taken into account: Spalart-Allmaras, k − ω SST and Realizable k − . Each one of these models
has been simulated as a RANS and as a DES, and then compared. The LES and DNS approach
has not been simulated due to the computational heaviness of the simulations.
The solutions have then been displayed with the post-processing software ParaVIEW, to show all
the needed variables occurred during the testing time. Plus, the residual of the three components
of velocity have been checked to converge, cause if they do, the solution could be trustworthy.
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