AirShaper

Other parts of this interview:
- Part 1 - Ferrari 458 to Lightyear One: https://youtu.be/o4Yv5hynV1Q
- Part 2 - Lightyear One Solar Car: https://youtu.be/TKHjyC_L0OM
- Part 4 - The Dallara Stradale: https://youtu.be/c7NyvCluYVc

In this 3rd part of our video with Lowie Vermeersch, we're looking at the future of autonomous vehicle design and how aerodynamics will play a role in this!

Lowie Vermeersch questions whether aerodynamics will impact autonomous vehicles or vice versa. The general aspect is that the future needs to move towards higher efficiency to become sustainable and to lower the cost of use.

To provide access to electric cars for many people, the cost still needs to come down. Higher efficiency can further reduce the size & cost of the battery. Aerodynamics is a big part of this efficiency.

This applies to both autonomous & privately owned cars, which will for a long time not look very different. Despite nice concept cars, which are marketing tools to enrich a brands value, actual production cars are always tailored to the human body and physical needs/constraints.

Current car design & layout are determined by drive train layout, fashion, and to a large extent the fundamental functions of a car. That's why a Tesla Model 3 doesn't look too different from other cars. It's largely determined by where the people sit, where they sit compared to the wheels, how you build the cabin around them and so on. So Lowie doesn't see it happening that autonomous cars will look entirely different.

That could happen when we reach totally different laws for autonomous cars (level 5). The visibility you need now is more or less defined by the position of the A-pillar. If you can change that, you can change the design in a more fundamental way and move towards more mono volume shapes.

Vehicle safety is also a big aspect: full active safety will change the structure of a car, which is now strongly determined by passive safety. Lowie Vermeersch did a study at Pininfarina in 2006 forecasting this (the Pininfarina Sintesi Concept Car): the moment that digital systems allow for full active safety (not like the passive safety of today, which is designed to allow cars to crash well) to avoid crashes, then you can get rid of the built-in passive safety.

With fully proven active safety, you can make cars much lighter. This can have a much bigger impact on the layout of the car, as many aspects of the current layout are determined by safety.

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The AirShaper videos cover the basics of aerodynamics (aerodynamic drag, drag & lift coefficients, boundary layer theory, flow separation, reynolds number...), simulation aspects (computational fluid dynamics, CFD meshing, ...) and aerodynamic testing (wind tunnel testing, flow visualization, ...).

We then use those basics to explain the aerodynamics of (race) cars (aerodynamic efficiency of electric vehicles, aerodynamic drag, downforce, aero maps, formula one aerodynamics, ...), drones and airplanes (propellers, airfoils, electric aviation, eVTOLS, ...), motorcycles (wind buffeting, motogp aerodynamics, ...) and more!

For more information, visit www.airshaper.com

Lowie Vermeersch Talks #3 - Autonomous Vehicle Design

Other parts of this interview:
- Part 1 - Ferrari 458 to Lightyear One: https://youtu.be/o4Yv5hynV1Q
- Part 3 - Autonomous Vehicle Design: https://youtu.be/xw-B_yTU4mY
- Part 4 - The Dallara Stradale: https://youtu.be/c7NyvCluYVc

Lowie Vermeersch is a famous Belgian Car Designer.
In this second part of the interview, we cover the Lightyear One: the hyper-innovative solar-powered electric car.

Just imagine how difficult it must have been to go from the proportions of a solar-powered prototype racer, all the way to an aesthetically pleasing & technically impressive production car. Here's how they were involved from the first sketches to the final production car.

White sheet of paper
They started with some of the work & research that the team of Lightyear had done. They have a lot of expertise in solar power systems & efficient drive trains. When they started developing the packaging, the proportions, the length/width/height, aerodynamics were really on the plate. An additional requirement was 5m² of solar cell surface. And of course good ergonomics & aesthetics.

Monovolume
Solar race cars typically have a teardrop, monovolume shape. That didn't work for the production, because the visibility lines dictate a huge windshield. This resulted in 3 disadvantages:
- Glass is very heavy
- Less room for solar cells
- Greenhouse effect - the inside of the car heats up. Cooling would require extra energy

Camera's instead of mirrors
The Lightyear One solar-powered car has been fitted with camera's instead of mirrors to further reduce aerodynamic drag. In this case, the camera supports actually improve the aerodynamics.

Covered rear wheel
This was a no-compromise car and covering the rear wheel again helped to reduce the drag. The black stripe around it avoids the visual impression that the car is dragging itself. Together with the strong shoulder, you have an aesthetically pleasing result without compromising aerodynamics.

Wind tunnel testing
The results were record breaking: a drag coefficient Cd of less than 0.20 is the best drag coefficient for a car in this class.

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The AirShaper videos cover the basics of aerodynamics (aerodynamic drag, drag & lift coefficients, boundary layer theory, flow separation, reynolds number...), simulation aspects (computational fluid dynamics, CFD meshing, ...) and aerodynamic testing (wind tunnel testing, flow visualization, ...).
We then use those basics to explain the aerodynamics of (race) cars (aerodynamic efficiency of electric vehicles, aerodynamic drag, downforce, aero maps, formula one aerodynamics, ...), drones and airplanes (propellers, airfoils, electric aviation, eVTOLS, ...), motorcycles (wind buffeting, motogp aerodynamics, ...) and more!

For more information, visit www.airshaper.com

Lowie Vermeersch #2 - The Lightyear One Solar Car

Other parts of this interview:
- Part 2 - Lightyear One Solar Car: https://youtu.be/TKHjyC_L0OM
- Part 3 - Autonomous Vehicle Design: https://youtu.be/xw-B_yTU4mY
- Part 4 - The Dallara Stradale: https://youtu.be/c7NyvCluYVc

Lowie Vermeersch is a famous Belgian Car Designer.
In this first part of the interview, we walk through his career: starting at the TUDelft in Holland all the way to running his own design studio Granstudio in Turin, the heart of the Italian Car Design Industry.

He has the unique skill to design pure, timeless & elegant cars without any form of machoism.
At Pininfarina, he designed the legendary Ferrari 458, an extremely beautiful, legendary sports car. At his own design studio, they worked on a.o. cars like the Dallara Stradale and the Lightyear One solar-powered car.

Lowie likes to talk about aerodynamics: it's an aspect that is often not highlighted when they present their designs, even though it's a very fundamental aspect, for vehicle design as a whole. This links back to his studies at the TUDelft, the Dutch University famous for its expertise in aerodynamics. There, he studied material science, physics, ... which has provided him with a holistic take on car design, which still typifies him as a designer today.

Lowie Vermeersch comes from an artist family (sculptors, painters, ...) and perhaps this has been part of the reason for his desire to have an independent position. He had been fascinated by the independent Italian Car Design studios and went on to do his internship and later work at Pininfarina. A combination of hard work, some merit, some luck, being the right guy at the right moment, allowed him to do great things there. He became responsible for design for the entire studio.

He later founded Gran Studio, where they are capable of working on anything that you can see with the naked eye. They have worked on cars like the Dallara Stradale and the Lightyear One solar-powered car, next to other projects in the broader mobility scene.

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The AirShaper videos cover the basics of aerodynamics (aerodynamic drag, drag & lift coefficients, boundary layer theory, flow separation, reynolds number...), simulation aspects (computational fluid dynamics, CFD meshing, ...) and aerodynamic testing (wind tunnel testing, flow visualization, ...).

We then use those basics to explain the aerodynamics of (race) cars (aerodynamic efficiency of electric vehicles, aerodynamic drag, downforce, aero maps, formula one aerodynamics, ...), drones and airplanes (propellers, airfoils, electric aviation, eVTOLS, ...), motorcycles (wind buffeting, motogp aerodynamics, ...) and more!

For more information, visit www.airshaper.com

Lowie Vermeersch #1 -  Ferrari 458 to Lightyear One

For more on AIRBUS:
- Part 1 - Aviation challenges: https://youtu.be/IgowvQZ3JtE
- Part 2 - Aircraft design tools: https://youtu.be/G60rTDR6CPw
- Part 3 - America's Cup Aerodynamics (1/2): https://youtu.be/ZcD9iA9DPrI


In this 4th & final video in the series AIRBUS talks, we continue our discussion on the aerodynamics of the America's Cup and we get insights into their involvement for the 36th edition, where they will support team American Magic.


Simulations instead of physical testing
Due to technical restrictions, it is forbidden to perform wind tunnel or water channel tests. So aerodynamic analysis & optimization is performed through simulations. This can be very costly when the geometry is complex or difficult to mesh, and very powerful high performance computers are required to perform the simulations. And then, many different set points need to be analyzed.


Velocity Performance Prediction
The output of such simulations was used in the Velocity Performance Prediction program: there they can simulate the performance of the boat using the aerodynamic coefficients. That is why they need as many details on the performance of the boat as possible. This approach is very comparable to laptime simulation programs used in Formula One and other racing series.


Interaction between the sails and the boat
One of the problems they found was the detached flow in the interaction between the main sail and the platform of the boat. This detached flow needed to be reduced. The platform acts like a wing tip for the bottom of the main sail, which in theory reduces the wing tip vortex. However, due to the complex flow over the platform and the sail, the wing tip is not so strong and detached flow at the root is a larger problem.


American Magic
Team New Zealand won the previous edition of the America's Cup (35th edition) and it's the winning team that get's to choose the design of the boat for the next edition. They decided to continue with the foils, but changed from a catamaran to monocoque layout of the boat. This is fascinating because this boat design could make the boats pass the magical 50 knots speed barrier. At those speeds, cavitation effects on the foils under water start playing a role.


Strict protocol
Teams are not allowed to inject a gas lighter than air inside the boat to lift the boat from the water. All the crew should also be human (no robots yet!)


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The AirShaper videos cover the basics of aerodynamics (aerodynamic drag, drag & lift coefficients, boundary layer theory, flow separation, reynolds number...), simulation aspects (computational fluid dynamics, CFD meshing, ...) and aerodynamic testing (wind tunnel testing, flow visualization, ...).

We then use those basics to explain the aerodynamics of (race) cars (aerodynamic efficiency of electric vehicles, aerodynamic drag, downforce, aero maps, formula one aerodynamics, ...), drones and airplanes (propellers, airfoils, electric aviation, eVTOLS, ...), motorcycles (wind buffeting, motogp aerodynamics, ...) and more!

For more information, visit www.airshaper.com

AIRBUS talks part 4 of 4 - America's Cup Aerodynamics - PART 2

For more on AIRBUS:
- Part 1 - Aviation challenges: https://youtu.be/IgowvQZ3JtE
- Part 2 - Aircraft design tools: https://youtu.be/G60rTDR6CPw
- Part 4 - America's Cup Aerodynamics (2/2): https://youtu.be/AdGuENBuZ-Y

In this third video in our series AIRBUS talks, we take a look at the aerodynamics of the America’s Cup boats.

History of the America’s Cup
The America’s Cup is the oldest sports competition in the world. The original race was between British & American ships, sailing around the Isle of Wight. The technology level is on par with Formula 1 and budgets are equally high.
In the last 3 America’s Cup, the contenders have used the foils to carry & lift the boat out of the water. Once the boat is lifted from the sea, it wins a lot of speed and aerodynamics become more important. Not just for the sails, but also for the entire platform:
- Detached flow from the crew
- Flow over cavities
AIRBUS can inject their expertise in these domains.

New challenges
With the hull coming out of the water, it becomes a relevant & active aerodynamic part. The biggest challenges AIRBUS had been to reduce the drag of the trampoline (which the crew uses to cross sides). Another challenge was to compare the drag of different hull shapes and crew positions.
Also, the interaction between components is very relevant. The front & rear beam connecting the left & right hull play a large role for the aerodynamics. They even apply vortex generators to reduce the drag!

Stay tuned for the fourth and last video, where we'll discuss the upcoming 36th edition of the America’s Cup!


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The AirShaper videos cover the basics of aerodynamics (aerodynamic drag, drag & lift coefficients, boundary layer theory, flow separation, reynolds number...), simulation aspects (computational fluid dynamics, CFD meshing, ...) and aerodynamic testing (wind tunnel testing, flow visualization, ...).

We then use those basics to explain the aerodynamics of (race) cars (aerodynamic efficiency of electric vehicles, aerodynamic drag, downforce, aero maps, formula one aerodynamics, ...), drones and airplanes (propellers, airfoils, electric aviation, eVTOLS, ...), motorcycles (wind buffeting, motogp aerodynamics, ...) and more!

For more information, visit www.airshaper.com

AIRBUS talks part 3 of 4  - America's Cup Aerodynamics

For more on airplane aerodynamics:
Peugeot designer's vision on aircraft design: https://youtu.be/RLHMN7B0ax8
Airplane aerodynamics explained: https://youtu.be/2W5Q2mllmxI
Glider plane aerodynamics: https://youtu.be/0jOAAZOvSuM

Air Race E is like nascar racing in the sky:
Electric planes racing at speeds of 300MPH around an oval track just 10 meters above the ground!

In this interview with Izan of Air Race E, we discuss how electric plane design is changing air racing and aviation as a whole:

Concept
Air Race E is a new class of motorsport based on electric aircraft. The format is similar to Nascar, with 8 airplanes racing in an oval circuit 10 meters above the ground. High-speed intense motorsport.

Airplane Design
- The front end of the aircraft
The electric powertrain is a lot more compact and this allows for a more compact nose cone. Also, no air intakes are present, making it more streamlined.
- Propeller layout
Regulations will be opened up from single-axis propellers to distributed electric propulsion. This is a hot topic in the urban mobility movement with companies like Joby Aviation, Uber Air, Lilium, CityAIRBUS and many others.
Distributed power along the wing becomes possible. Or putting the rotors at the wingtips to counteract the wingtip vortices & increase efficiency.
- Battery distribution
These can be located in the wing, tail, nose, ... the distributed weight allows for new architectures as well.
- Part count
There is a large reduction in part count & operational cost per flight hour compared to traditional fossil fuel

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The AirShaper videos cover the basics of aerodynamics (aerodynamic drag, drag & lift coefficients, boundary layer theory, flow separation, reynolds number...), simulation aspects (computational fluid dynamics, CFD meshing, ...) and aerodynamic testing (wind tunnel testing, flow visualization, ...).

We then use those basics to explain the aerodynamics of (race) cars (aerodynamic efficiency of electric vehicles, aerodynamic drag, downforce, aero maps, formula one aerodynamics, ...), drones and airplanes (propellers, airfoils, electric aviation, eVTOLS, ...), motorcycles (wind buffeting, motogp aerodynamics, ...) and more!

For more information, visit www.airshaper.com

Nascar in the Sky - Interview with Air Race E

For more on AIRBUS:
- Part 1 - Aviation challenges: https://youtu.be/IgowvQZ3JtE
- Part 3 - America's Cup Aerodynamics (1/2): https://youtu.be/ZcD9iA9DPrI
- Part 4 - America's Cup Aerodynamics (2/2): https://youtu.be/AdGuENBuZ-Y

In this second video in our series 'AIRBUS talks' we dive into the different methods that are used to design a modern airplane:
- CFD (computational fluid dynamics): aerodynamic simulations running on high-performance computers
- Wind tunnel testing: using scaled models inside a wind tunnel to analyze multiple set points
- Flight testing: flying the real airplane to map its behaviour, performing reject take-off scenario's, stall angle detection, ...

AIRBUS gives us insights into the benefits of these methods:
- CFD: it's possible to simulate the real Reynolds number - the real speed & size of the airplane
- Wind tunnel testing: you can analyze multiple setpoints over a single campaign
- Flight testing: the one & only end evaluation

Most of the efforts are focused on cruise flight, as this represents 90% of the operating regime of the plane.

We also zoom in on the challenges of keeping the Reynolds number the same. AIRBUS even goes as far as working with different gases at low temperature & pressure to get the same Reynolds number as the real aircraft! They've performed tests at DNW (German-Dutch Wind tunnels), ETW (European Transonic Wind Tunnel), DLR (Deutsche Luft & Raumfahrt) and more.

Coming up next:
How AIRBUS was and is involved in the America's Cup!


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The AirShaper videos cover the basics of aerodynamics (aerodynamic drag, drag & lift coefficients, boundary layer theory, flow separation, reynolds number...), simulation aspects (computational fluid dynamics, CFD meshing, ...) and aerodynamic testing (wind tunnel testing, flow visualization, ...).

We then use those basics to explain the aerodynamics of (race) cars (aerodynamic efficiency of electric vehicles, aerodynamic drag, downforce, aero maps, formula one aerodynamics, ...), drones and airplanes (propellers, airfoils, electric aviation, eVTOLS, ...), motorcycles (wind buffeting, motogp aerodynamics, ...) and more!

For more information, visit www.airshaper.com

AIRBUS Talks - Aircraft Design Tools

For more on AIRBUS:
- Part 2 - Aircraft design tools: https://youtu.be/G60rTDR6CPw
- Part 3 - America's Cup Aerodynamics (1/2): https://youtu.be/ZcD9iA9DPrI
- Part 4 - America's Cup Aerodynamics (2/2): https://youtu.be/AdGuENBuZ-Y

'AIRBUS TALKS' is a series of 4 videos with Julián Maldonado: he explains the ins & outs of aviation design and the America's Cup boats they help design.

Part 1: Aviation Challenges

In this first video, Julian explains the modern challenges in aviation and how they plan to tackle these.

About Julian Maldonado:
- Has been working at AIRBUS for 15 years
- 10 years on aerodynamics: CFD, wind tunnel testing, flight testing
- 2 years on flight dynamics: A320neo, flight test identification
- 3 years on aircraft performance: project manager

Typical general aviation challenges - related to the aerodynamics:
- Safety first
- Reduce emissions: CO2, NOx, Noise

Aerodynamic focus points:
- Laminar flow: reducing turbulence & drag
- Improving the lift/drag ratio: improve performance & optimize the trajectory

Improving the overall drag of the airplane:
- Winglets: 2% drag reduction. Applied to every flight, this has a huge impact.
- Laminar flow: the BLADE project focuses on improving laminarity on the wings to reduce the drag.

Coming up next:
Simulation techniques, wind tunnel testing & flight testing


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The AirShaper videos cover the basics of aerodynamics (aerodynamic drag, drag & lift coefficients, boundary layer theory, flow separation, reynolds number...), simulation aspects (computational fluid dynamics, CFD meshing, ...) and aerodynamic testing (wind tunnel testing, flow visualization, ...).

We then use those basics to explain the aerodynamics of (race) cars (aerodynamic efficiency of electric vehicles, aerodynamic drag, downforce, aero maps, formula one aerodynamics, ...), drones and airplanes (propellers, airfoils, electric aviation, eVTOLS, ...), motorcycles (wind buffeting, motogp aerodynamics, ...) and more!

For more information, visit www.airshaper.com

AIRBUS Talks - Part 1/4 - Aviation Challenges

For more information on sports car aerodynamics:
- 300 MPH custom Lamborghini: https://youtu.be/N9kMQBBMUdM
- Porsche Taycan - part 1: https://youtu.be/K2jgsgihZ_w
- Porsche Taycan - part 2: https://youtu.be/kyHjWGnrByQ

In this video, we’re analyzing how aerodynamics impact the performance of rally cars.

Surprisingly enough, in many ways the aerodynamics of rally cars are far more complex than in Formula One, where the cars enjoy some of the world’s smoothest and grippiest bits of tarmac. That’s quite a big contrast to rally cars, where driving in a straight line without wheel spin, drifting or jumping is a rare occasion.
So, where do you start if you want to optimize the aerodynamic performance? The hard reality is that you’ll have to look at multiple scenario's and strike a delicate balance between aerodynamic performance in each of those.

Let's take this 2016 Skoda Rally car in normal setup (regular ride height) and straight-line driving at 40 m/s as the reference. As shown by these red clouds, which indicate where a drag-increasing wake is created, this clearly isn’t the most streamlined car out there:

The rooftop air intake disturbs the air to such an extent that in its wake the center of the rear wing loses pressure and performance. And those wheel arches cause a lot of separation of the airflow at the sides of the car.

But enough on theoretical straight-line driving – it almost never happens, it’s time to start jumping & drifting!

If we increase the car's ride height by 15cm, which is not uncommon just before or during a jump, then the drag on the car increases by 16% and the downforce is cut in half! As you can imagine, losing downforce and grip just before take-off can be quite tricky for the launch. And once you’re flying, you’re slowing down quite a lot because of the drag!

Massive changes in ride height like this are one of the main reasons it’s difficult to boost rally car performance by using underfloor aerodynamics, diffusers and so on: the downforce they generate is extremely sensitive to changes in ride height. And perhaps even more important, that change of downforce can be more pronounced at the front or the rear, changing the aerodynamic balance and thus the handling & stability of the car.

Next, let's look at drifting. Obviously, there's enough debate going on already as to whether you'll be faster or not when drifting. When it comes to aerodynamics, the drag on this car increased by 43% at a moderate drift angle of 15°! That would slow you down quite a lot. But there's good news as well:

The entire car starts acting like a giant wind shield, with the wind hitting the outer side flank. This generates around 100kg of lateral force pushing the car back into the corner.

And, interestingly, the wake of the rooftop air intake is no longer affecting the rear wing, which is now happily creating downforce, so it seems that this car really comes together in the corners.



Note: the 3D model of the rally car used in this video was a public one from hum3D.com and is not an official model from Skoda: it serves mainly to highlight general rally car challenges and not to make official claims to the performance of this car in question.

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The AirShaper videos cover the basics of aerodynamics (aerodynamic drag, drag & lift coefficients, boundary layer theory, flow separation, reynolds number...), simulation aspects (computational fluid dynamics, CFD meshing, ...) and aerodynamic testing (wind tunnel testing, flow visualization, ...).

We then use those basics to explain the aerodynamics of (race) cars (aerodynamic efficiency of electric vehicles, aerodynamic drag, downforce, aero maps, formula one aerodynamics, ...), drones and airplanes (propellers, airfoils, electric aviation, eVTOLS, ...), motorcycles (wind buffeting, motogp aerodynamics, ...) and more!

For more information, visit www.airshaper.com

Our Latest Videos

Gain aerodynamic insight by watching our videos

Lowie Vermeersch Talks #3 - Autonomous Vehicle Design

Lowie Vermeersch #2 - The Lightyear One Solar Car

Lowie Vermeersch #1 - Ferrari 458 to Lightyear One

AIRBUS talks part 4 of 4 - America's Cup Aerodynamics - PART 2

AIRBUS talks part 3 of 4 - America's Cup Aerodynamics

Nascar in the Sky - Interview with Air Race E

AIRBUS Talks - Aircraft Design Tools

AIRBUS Talks - Part 1/4 - Aviation Challenges

Rally Car Aerodynamics - Side Slipping through the Air

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