CFD STUDY OF AERODYNAMIC PERFORMANCE OF A POPULAR VEHICLE’S OUTER BODY SHAPE AND ANALYSIS OF THE EFFECT OF AERODYNAMIC AIDS

Aerodynamic characteristics of a high performance car are of significant interest in reducing accidents due to wind loading and improving fuel consumption. With the availability of road cars capable of speeds well in excess of 300km/h and the growing popularity of ‘track days’, wherein owners of such street-legal super sports cars engage in competitive driving on race circuits, it has become imperative to ensure such production cars are aerodynamically stable at high speeds. For this reason, modifying production cars for improved aerodynamic performance is becoming increasingly popular and even several manufacturers are now offering aerodynamic aids such as air dams with front splitters, canards, side skirts, vortex generators, spoilers, rear wings and rear diffusers as standard from the factory.