Numerical Investigation and Fluid-Structure Interaction (FSI) Analysis on a Double-Element Simplified Formula One (F1) Composite Wing in the Presence of Ground Effect

Abstract

This research paper focuses on a novel coupling of the aerodynamic and structural behaviour of a double-element composite front wing of a Formula One (F1) vehicle, which was simulated and studied for the first time here. To achieve this goal, a modified two-way coupling method was employed in the context of high performance computing (HPC) to simulate a steady-state fluid-structure interaction (FSI) configuration using the ANSYS software package. The front wing plays a key role in generating aerodynamic forces and controlling the fresh airflow to maximise the aerodynamic performance of an F1 car. Therefore, the composite front wing becomes deflected under aerodynamic loading conditions due to its elastic behaviour which can lead to changes in the flow field and the aerodynamic performance of the wing. To reduce the uncertainty of the simulations, a grid sensitivity study and the assessment of different engineering turbulence models were carried out. The practical contribution of our investigations is the quantification of the coupled effect of the aerodynamic and structural performance of the wing and an understanding of the influence of ride heights on the ground effect. It was found that the obtained numerical surface pressure distributions, the aerodynamic forces, and the wake profiles show an accurate agreement with experimental data taken from the literature.