Developing the Competitive Edge
Le Mans Prototype: A Case Study
Project Overview
BMI Corporation explored the preliminary design on the Le Mans prototype to improve the overall performance. Analysis was done to improve the:
- External body
- Wing
- Airduct
- Undertray
Additional Project Details
BMI performed full Viscous Navier Stokes analysis:
- @5,000,000 grid points required
- Several hours to converge on computing cluster
- Moving road & rotating wheels to represent track conditions (more accurate than rolling road wind tunnel)
- Detailed analysis of results by experienced engineer required
Project Results
The final design was found to be extremely efficient with a great deal of down force.
Project Images
At A Glance
Project Goal
Use computation fluid dynamics to improve the design of the Le Mans prototype.
The Techniques
- High order surface modeling techniques (Boeing code)
- Moving floor and rotating wheels
- Complete Flow Visualization
- Navier Stokes Analysis (NASA code)
The Results
Success!