Date of Award

9-2019

Degree Name

MS in Aerospace Engineering

Department/Program

Aerospace Engineering

Advisor

Paulo Iscold

Abstract

This thesis presents changes to the design of the Prototype Vehicles Laboratory (PROVE Lab) Endurance Car, an electric car intended to break the Guinness World Record for the single-charge range of an electric vehicle. The design range is 1609.34 km, however at the design velocity of 104.6 kph, the drag is 196 N; which requires more battery capacity than the 100 kWh maximum of the baseline model. With a fixed frontal area, drag reduction can come from lowered velocity or reduced CD. CD reduction is attempted in four ways: side skirts between the fenders, a raised ride height, an elongated diffuser, and a widened rear. Side skirts were added to move pressure recovery from the front ducts to the diffuser by lowering the pressure between the side skirts; this had the intended effect but increased the tendency of the flow to separation in the already-separated areas. There was no significant change in pressure drag, but the shear drag and downforce increased. The ride height was increased to reduce drag and downforce; this change did not have a significant effect on the resultant forces and the separation on the underbody was largely unchanged. The diffuser was extended by 12.7 cm without modifying the aspect ratio, to lower the divergence angle. The pressure and shear drag reduced by 8 N and 1.1 N, respectively, and downforce decreased by 80 N, but separation in the diffuser was not eliminated. Finally, the fourth strategy reduced the divergence angle to approximately zero degrees by widening the center of the vehicle. This decreased pressure drag by 13 N and downforce by 188 N. Additionally, this strategy allows a larger 180 kWh battery, which permits 1609.34 km of range at 104.6 kph.

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