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NASCAR engineers nearly eliminate wind tunnel testing using Ansys

D2H's aerodynamics work has enabled JTG Daugherty Racing's cars to move up the field in 2020. Shown here is Ryan Preece driving #37 (blue).

 

 

 

 

If you've ever seen a rocket launch, flown on an airplane, driven a car, used a computer, touched a mobile device, crossed a bridge, or put on wearable technology, chances are you've used a product where Ansys software played a critical role in its creation. Professional motorsports teams also use the technology.

NASCAR racing teams are leveraging a state-of-the-art automated simulation workflow created by D2H Advanced Technologies (D2H) and Ansys to improve high-performance stock cars that are engineered with speed, efficiency, and affordability. The D2H/Ansys collaboration significantly streamlines and improves aerodynamics development of race cars.

With only one week to prepare between races, NASCAR racing teams have traditionally spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on rigorous and time-consuming wind tunnel testing to advance their cars' aerodynamics. Ansys Fluent software provides teams with tremendous production efficiency and cost savings by delivering leading-edge aerodynamic models that enhance stock car performance across every track scenario, empowering drivers to outpace the competition in an attempt to cross the finish line first.

Motorsport engineering experts D2H and Ansys created an automated Fluent workflow that nearly eliminates wind tunnel testing. The workflow slashes engineering workloads and integrates high-performance computing (HPC) to optimize designs much faster. This drastically accelerates the teams' simulation process to engineer more aerodynamic race cars, enabling teams to produce 3x more designs without extra development time and to resolve issues in hours instead of days.

"This cutting-edge workflow makes an incredible impact on our mutual customers' aerodynamic designs, with racing teams realizing heightened modeling fidelity and markedly faster run times," said Noah McKay, engineering director at D2H. "Using this workflow, NASCAR teams overcome design issues sooner and maximize production efficiency within a tight developmental window, resulting in major performance advantages, which promises more track championships."

D2H's CFD predictions were proven in testing, reducing wind tunnel time and costs.

 

 

Relying on simulation to ready their stock cars for each race, teams are laser-focused on reducing the design time.

"Eighty percent of the modeling process involves cleaning up 'dirty' geometry, in which an engineer must spend countless hours removing the extraneous components that aren't needed to run a simulation," said Jason Pfeiffer, vice president at Rand Simulation, D2H's dedicated Ansys channel partner. "This automated workflow delivers a push-button solution that compresses the development process, helping engineers create designs faster to address challenging aerodynamic issues."

Track surfaces, weather conditions, and competition rules change weekly, generating complicated design issues to address. By nearly excluding wind tunnel testing from the developmental process, teams are more agile and more precise than ever.

"Our mutual NASCAR racing team customers require substantial speed of design and peak fidelity, which presents major obstacles for optimizing the design of high-performance stock cars," said Shane Emswiler, senior vice president at Ansys. "By collaborating directly with D2H, our shared resources enable racing teams to pivot from costly and laborious wind tunnel testing to a customized, automated end-to-end workflow -- delivering highly advanced race cars that can conquer the competition."

Learn more about Ansys Fluent at ansys.com/products/fluids/ansys-fluent.

Source: Ansys

Published February 2021

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