NASCAR championship win attributed to CFD technology

29th November 2016

Alice Matthews

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It has been announced that Mentor Graphics Corporation's FloEFD Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) technology was used to improve the performance of the racecar driven by Anthony Kumpen of Belgium, who was crowned the NASCAR Whelen Euro Series Champion this month.

Voxdale worked with Kumpen on his racecar, a PK Carsport Chevrolet SS, using Mentor Graphics FloEFD technology for aerodynamic engineering.

The team at Voxdale investigated how Kumpen’s race car’s performance could be improved. Since NASCAR is a closed racing series with a tight rule book and stringent regulations, the body work, manifolds, or engine parts could not be altered. However, using CFD simulation, the design team could gain insight into the behavior of the car, map the airflow, and examine the cooling system, such as the cooling flow of the engine, the flow to the brake ducts, and even the ventilation inside the cockpit. Using the FloEFD product for CFD testing, the design team was able to increase the car’s competitiveness for aerodynamic performance.

“Bringing home a title is something you do as a team. You have to work on every detail,” said Anthony Kumpen. “That’s why we started working with Voxdale and FloEFD which gave us the added technological edge to bring home the title.”

“Anthony Kumpen won by a margin of just nine points, and we believe using FloEFD was valuable in his win by improving the speed and performance of his race car,” stated Koen Beyers, CEO, Voxdale. “We value the FloEFD software because it optimises product performance and reliability, while eliminating physical prototyping and reducing product development costs.”

FloEFD helps design engineers conduct frontloaded, concurrent CFD analysis using the familiar MCAD interface. This reduces design times by orders of magnitude when compared to traditional methods and products. Mentor states that the FloEFD frontloading CFD methodology can reduce simulation time by as much as 65-75% over traditional CFD tools.

“Mentor congratulates Anthony Kumpen on his NASCAR Whelen Euro Series win, and we are excited to see how FloEFD has made an impact on improving his racing performance, thanks to Voxdale’s use of our CFD technology,” stated Roland Feldhinkel, General Manager, Mentor Graphics Mechanical Analysis Division. “We wish Voxdale and Anthony continued success as they enhance their product performance using technologies such as Mentor’s FloEFD tool.”