Automotive

ARA has a long-standing tradition of expertise in the field of aerodynamics, mesh generation, and CFD software/process development. As well as providing aerodynamic design expertise to major aerospace companies over the last 30 years, ARA has been involved with major F1 teams by providing CFD process development to streamline throughput time from CAD geometry processing to flow solutions.

The motorsport capability is built around a large amount of experience in low-speed aerodynamics and CFD tools. We provide solutions targeted to that which the client requires. This can range from evaluating design changes on specific areas of the car by generating and providing the client with all the aerodynamic data for decision-making, to having a major involvement in the design and development of areas of the car by contributing our own experience in aerodynamics and fluid mechanics.

We offer a meshing solution that is proven through years of application in motorsport by using the commercial tools integrated into ARA’s proven CFD process. Thus, by combining these tools with strict quality metrics for both surface and volume mesh generation, we are able to prevent poor mesh quality having a strong influence on the solver convergence and the resulting output, resulting in greater confidence in the data when attempting to make important design decisions.

All post-processing is achieved using ParaView, a free visualisation package that allows us to provide the data to the customer in a format with which they are able to work without incurring any extra licence costs required by commercial vendors. ARA also provides support and training for Paraview from a basic introduction to advanced post-processing.

With the wealth of CFD process development and aerodynamic analysis experience available, ARA is able to provide a service to the motorsport and automotive industry which can be perfectly tailored to match the customer requirements.

For details of test techniques being developed which are applicable to motor vehicles, please go to the Pressure Sensitive Paint page.