Aerodynamic Development of DNV GL Fuel Fighter - Towards Shell Eco Marathon 2015
Abstract
Shell Eco Marathon (SEM) is an international engineering competitionfor university students. The aim of the competitions is to build a vehiclethat achieves the highest possible energy efficiency. DNV GL Fuel Fighteris NTNU s contribution to SEM 2015. This year team consist of 25student from different studies, where everyone has their area of expertisein the project.
The team decided to develop a new Urban Concept vehicle that hasa totally different design compared to previous NTNU Urban Concepts.This text is going to be focusing on the aerodynamic aspect of developingthe new Urban Concept. The team used the production developmentmethodology from the department of Design Engineering and Materials(IPM) from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU).The IPM methodology has four different phases, where the aerodynamicaspect was in all phases.There were two design concepts that were of interest, and whichgot further aerodynamic analysis by intuition, CFD (ComputationalFluid Dynamics) and wind tunnel testing in order t o minimize the dragcoefficient. Aerodynamics of vehicles are more than just minimizing thedrag coefficient, but it was only time to go through that aerodynamicaspect of developing a vehicle.
Concept 1 had a drag coefficient of 0.32 and Concept 2 had a dragcoefficient of 0.27, which were good compared to a normal passengervehicle that has a drag coefficient between 0.30-0.45. The chosen conceptwas Concept 2, not only because it has lower drag coefficient, but alsoproducing Concept 2 was much easier than Concept 1.
During SEM the Urban Concept didn t get any approved attempts,because of some problems with the hydrogen leakage from the fuel cells.However, the team was a runner up on the "design off track award", whichwas also the team s objective.