Why aerofoil shape is preferred in vehicle designing ?
An aerofoil shape is a streamlined shape which is capable of generating significantly more lift than drag. Generally this shape is preferred in designing blades of propeller rotor, turbine or sail but in current scenario most of the automobiles manufacturers are preferring the aerofoil shape. To understand this aerofoil shape we must have knowledge of basic aerodynamic forces like lift force and drag force. So, Lift force is the component of aerodynamic force which is perpendicular to the relative velocity of air (generally it is a vertical) and the other one is Drag force which is the component parallel to the relative velocity (generally it is horizontal force). In the figure (a) the aerofoil shape is shown and also mentioned how lift and drag forces are acting on aerofoil geometry.
Different types of aerofoil shapes are shown in below figure (b) and also mentioned how it affects the speed and lift.
In airplanes, our main objective is to gain the maximum amount of lift force easily. Due to aerofoil shape we get pressure difference between the two surfaces of the aerofoil shape wing as shown in figure (c). Pressure in the lower wing is higher than the pressure in the upper wing so due to this pressure difference we get lift in upward motion. Scientists found out that out of any other shape aerofoil shape can create a minimum amount of drag force so the power required to fly an airplane can be reduced shown in figure (d).
In automobiles, we do not require the lift force but in this our main objective is to reduce the drag force. So many researchers and manufacturers are making aerofoil shaped cars which are shown in figure. Here due to aerofoil shape we reduced the amount of drag force but we also got the lifting force at higher speed operation. So to reduce the lifting force again researchers used the aerofoil shape in terms of spoiler. Spoiler is an aerofoil shaped device but it is used in reverse manner hence it is the exact opposite geometry of aerofoil so it creates lift force in downward direction which neutralizes the lifting force which is acting in upward direction due to automobile aerofoil geometry. This type of geometry is best suited in supercars and racing cars where the speed and minimum drag force is required. The below figure (e) shows the effect of aerofoil geometry.
This below figure (f) shows how lift and drag force acts on automobile and figure (g) shows the effect of use of spoiler
Written by: Ruchit Shah(Instagram: @rjshah_02)
Vociferous Writers (Instagram: @vociferouswriters)
