Automobile shape formation and simulation by a computer-aided systematic method

Abstract

A systematic method which combines the shape curvature entropy and computational fluid dynamics analyses was proposed in this study for creating automobile shapes. Various automobile shapes were evaluated by the proposed method and the parameters including the curvature entropy and the drag coefficient of each configuration were calculated so as to determine the optimal shape design. First, shapes of commercially available car models were collected and their curvature entropy values were determined by the proposed equation. Meanwhile, the drag coefficient of each car model was determined by computational fluid dynamics simulation. Both values were compared and the results indicated a positive correlation between an automobile shape’s curvature entropy value and its drag coefficient. Therefore, the curvature entropy is proven to be a suitable indicator for estimating an automobile shape’s aerodynamic performance. For a new automobile shape design, the required number of numerical analyses can be reduced by utilizing the proposed curvature entropy calculation so that the time spent on designing an automobile shape can be greatly reduced.