Studying the drag coefficient of three-wheel electrical car

The electric car has drawn the attention of many researchers and car manufacturers because of the fossil fuel depletion and environmental pollution. Moreover, Vietnam is a low-income country, and transportation infrastructure has not really developed. Therefore, the development of three-wheel electric car is appropriate and necessary. Optimizing the body car's aerodynamics plays a very important role in improving energy efficiency. In this project, we design and optimize the body of a three-wheel electrical car using Solid Flow Simulation to obtain a better drag coefficient (C
d
) value. The initial simulated-condition set to 35 km/h of air velocity. Based on the surface-pressure distribution after simulating, the preliminary design of the body has been modified. The simulation results reveal that the drag coefficient has decreased from 0,5 to 0,39. The optimized C
d
value is relatively small and agrees with the standard's value varying from 0,32 to 0,52 for the typical Sedan cars. The optimal electric car body design will be built and tested. Furthermore, the results also suggest the applicability of Solid Flow Simulation to design and manufacture car components.