Through SM AeRo Techniques (SMART) Simon McBeath, carries out motorsport CFD projects primarily to generate material for articles in Racecar Engineering magazine (see Magazines) and his book Competition Car Aerodynamics (see Books). Clearly there is also benefit to be had for the subject cars' owners too, and real, tangible performance gains have been obtained through these projects.

Free 'whole car' aerodynamics advice is also available, if required, to customers who buy wings from my manufacturing partners at DJ Engineering Services Ltd (a.k.a. DJ Racecars). Please see The Wing Shop home page for more information on this.

CFD
CFD service provision is usually thought of as a very expensive option, but SM Aero Techniques and Black Art Customs have jointly developed a successful approach to whole car projects using CAD models with sensibly reduced levels of detail that have correlated remarkably well with on-track performance and brought real performance benefits. ANSYS CFD, part of the ANSYS Workbench suite, is being used, offering potent levels of mesh control, 'boundary layer inflation', a robust solver and good post-processing tools enabling force calculations on individual components as well as a range of illuminating flow visualisation techniques.

Our service will not enable analysis at the 'micro aerodynamics' level, like perhaps we might think happens in Formula 1 or other top level motorsport categories. Even with a potent multi-core workstation with lots of RAM the hardware available falls a long way short of what's required for that. But at a 'macro and meso aerodynamics' level, extremely useful aerodynamic force and balance trends can be obtained, and the effect of adjustments and modifications can be measured and visualised.

If you have a project that you would like to be considered for potential publication in Racecar Engineering magazine then the costs are limited to the creation and manipulation of the CAD model only, subject to editorial commission of the project for article publication. (Alternatively, if confidentiality is important to you, or if your project is not selected for publication, then you may be able to purchase a short term commercial deal that will still enable your project to be carried out, and in total secrecy. Please note though that priority goes to publishable projects.)

To enquire about availability and cost indications for the different options, and for full terms and conditions, please get in touch for a preliminary discussion.

A sample article on one of our projects can be viewed by clicking on the link to Racecar Engineering on the right.

LMP wing project
SM Aerotechniques helped 'Mulsannes Corner' with a short CFD investigation of the 2009 ACO rear wing regulations for Le Mans LMP1 prototypes.  The CFD analysis looked at the rear wing regulations changes introduced in 2009 and their effects as well as the introduction of the 'swan neck' rear wing mounts. Racecar Engineering's January 2012 issue featured the findings. See 'Mulsanne Mike' Fuller's excellent online article by clicking here.

Subscriptions to Racecar Engineering can be taken out online at www.racecar-engineering.com. Back issues can also be purchased from the publisher if you miss any.

For information on wings designed by Simon McBeath/SM Designs please visit The Wing Shop page.