In the project, I want to see the aerodynamics of a car. I have never dove into how much aerodynamics affects how a car can drive or how much it affects speeds. There are many other things that we will look into during this project, such as drag and lift, which also pique my interest. I am very curious to see how it will affect the car's performance and where the car could be improved. Furthermore, I want to do more work with the wind tunnel and see just how far we can go in experimentation. Although the car industry does not excite me too much, there are some things that I do want to learn more about, such as everyday items (cars), and this project will help me learn more about the field.

The purpose of this experiment was to find the coefficient of drag and lift on a scale model car, and identify the effect vortex generators have on the coefficient of drag. Additionally, from this experiment, we hope to understand more about how drag and lift work while also gaining more knowledge about the essential basics of fluid mechanics, such as pressure differentials, manometers, air density, and vortex generators. These are all crucial areas of study for mechanical engineers and are essential in creating good designs that can be beneficial to the world by using a model car with static and stagnation pressure taps in a wind tunnel with a force sensor that measures lift and drag. With this information, the coefficient of drag and lift can be found along various points of the model car.

Overall, it was found that the coefficient of drag was in line with what was expected from a newer performance car, and the vortex generators showed a decrease in the coefficient of drag for the portion of the car after they were implemented. This is important because it shows the importance of proper car design with respect to aerodynamics and how designing and implementing vortex generators can be more efficient.

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Click here to view the Presentation.

Student Essays:

Adam Meyer

Corben Yates