ANSYS® Fluent™ efficiently and accurately calculates the aerodynamic pressures on a Formula 1 rear wing for any given vehicle racing speed. This application note shows how Optimus directly integrates the ANSYS® Workbench™ parametric model, and modifies the design to maximize the downforce while having a minimal impact on drag.

Optimization process executed in less than 24 hours

Tight integration allows Optimus to directly access the parameterized model in ANSYS® Workbench™ - no further work required. Optimus then executes the simulation process in an automated way, explores the entire design space and runs fast design optimization with minimum user intervention.

Simplifying the decision process

Using Design of Experiments (DOE) techniques, Optimus screens the entire design space - minimizing elapsed time thanks to parallel execution of the simulation process. Using cross-validation techniques, Optimus data mining identified the most influential design parameters, which simplifies the decision process and reduces the number of runs needed to identify the most promising and feasible design candidates.

Delivering a better design

Optimus successfully optimized the rear wing design to increase the downforce/drag ratio by 19.7% and reduce the maximum total deformation by 16.8%.