Hello dear community,
I am trying to design a proper rear wing for our formula student car. This is my latest model and I am happy with the downforce results. However, my force coefficients are always way too high. Can you tell me why?
When calculating the c_L via the max downforce, I get a value of 1,44 which seems too small.
Hello HeWoelker,
thanks for reaching out to us here in the community.
I can see that you have already adjusted this, but please ensure to set up the Coefficient plot correctly for documentation purposes.
As you are doing a simulation at 19m/s please set the velocity to the reference velocity.
Based on my experience a CL of 1.44 is pretty reasonable for FS wings, but this cannot be said without proper validation.
Best regards
Sebastian
Hey Sebastian, thank you for your answer. Indeed, I did correct this, fingers are crossed. However, I am not sure about the reference area. Shouldn’t it be set by choosing the assigned faces? I did change the value from 1 to 0.94 (chord length times wing span) now, but don’t see a the reason behind it.
Hi HeWoelker,
usually the reference area is the frontal area, thus the area of the wing when projected to a frontal plane.
What you can also do is use the CLA. For this value, you always use 1 m² as the reference area. This ensures that when comparing two wing designs you compare the performance based on the force gained.
Best regards
Sebastian
