This video is a continuation of the design, optimization and validation of an F1 in schools
model car.
We will be looking at which car produces the least amount of drag.
In our previous video, we learned how to set up a study to test different angles of our
rear wing in order to find the best orientation that provided the setup that reduced drag
on our car.
We would now like to test our optimized version of the car against another car design in a
side-by-side comparison.
We will be using the same domain and boundary conditions as the previous simulations.
First, we will import our geometry file.
To do this, navigate to file, then insert geometry.
We will select the geometry for the second car.
As a reminder, we do not need to have a SpaceClaim file for our geometry.
Discovery can directly import several native CAD formats as well as neutral file formats
such as step files.
Here we have our side-by-side comparison of the two cars.
We can see there are several differences between the two, such as sidepod design, rear wing
as well as the diffuser.
It is always a good idea to check the orientation and spacing when doing a side-by-side comparison
so that the flow from one car is not influencing the flow around the other.
Our original domain only contains the original car.
To extend it to include both cars, select the face of the domain closest to our newly
imported car and then select the move tool.
Using the move handle, drag the face so that the enclosure now contains both cars.
Next, double-check the boundary conditions of the domain to ensure they have not changed.
We will now set up our monitors for this study.
We are still looking for the design that minimizes drag, so we will set up a monitor for the
force of drag on our newly imported car.
Since we are simply importing a second car into a study that we have already completed,
we will only need to set up monitors on the newly imported geometry.
The monitors we previously used for the first car will still be present.
We will set up these monitors in the same way as we did for our previous studies.
First, we will navigate to the monitor section of our heads-up display.
We will then select force as the variable of interest.
Since we will be tracking the drag force, we will select the Y direction and click the
complete button.
Finally, we will want to give this monitor a name that helps us identify what the monitor
is tracking and on what surfaces.
We can see that we have several runs of data stored for our previously optimized design.
Since this is a new simulation, we will want to clear out the data from our previous runs
in order to avoid confusion later on.
We will also reset our simulation by hitting the reset button next to the green solve button.
With our setup complete, we can run our side-by-side comparison study.
Since we extended our domain to include both cars, our visualization tools allow us to
look at the flow over both cars.
By reorienting our streamlines, or our view of the cars, we can visualize the flow around
in between both designs.
Now looking at the drag force generated by both cars, we can see that our original geometry
experiences more drag than the newly imported design.
Since the fidelity of our simulation can be increased, we will want to rerun our simulation,
this time increasing the fidelity by changing the slider on the Explore banner.
We can see that by increasing the fidelity of our simulation, the force of drag on both
cars increases.
And the drag force has increased more on the newly imported design.
We will want to further explore this trend by increasing the fidelity of the simulation.
Using the highest fidelity study in Explorer mode, we can now see that the optimized design
has less drag than the newly imported car.
However, we can also see that the flows off the wheels, sidepods and diffuser are mixing
in the region between the two cars.
If you encounter situations such as this in your side-by-side simulations, it is best
practice to move the cars further apart,
Extend the domain, and rerun your study, which we will now do with the move handle for both
the enclosure as well as the car.
By performing these changes in rerunning our simulation, we can see that the optimized
design experiences less drag.
However, the difference between the two designs is not as large.
With this data, we can further optimize our original design or perform additional studies
on these cars to look at other relevant parameters of interest or design modifications.
I hope you've enjoyed this video series.
This concludes the F1 in schools tutorial.