The role
I worked across both the suspension and aerodynamics departments. Splitting across the two is unusual on a Formula Student team, and it is the part I got most out of: the aerodynamic package and the suspension are solving the same problem from opposite ends, and decisions made in one show up as constraints in the other.
Front wing design and CFD
In aerodynamics I focused on front wing design and CFD testing in SolidWorks and Star-CCM+. The work ran as a loop: draw a concept, mesh and solve it, compare it against the concepts already on the board, and quantify what actually changed rather than arguing about which shape looked faster.
- Geometry and concept generation in SolidWorks
- CFD setup and solution in Star-CCM+
- Concept-versus-concept comparison on a like-for-like basis
- Performance changes quantified in downforce, mass and balance across the car
Balance is the term that makes a front wing hard. Downforce added at the front axle is only useful if the car can carry it, so a front wing change is never purely a front wing change: it moves the aerodynamic balance, and the rest of the car has to be part of the judgement.
