Abstract
Nowadays there is a clear requirement in the automotive industry for automated geometry optimization processes for part design. In this technical paper, we presented an adjoint-based method applied to a surface mesh representation of a generic passenger car in order to improve its aerodynamic performance. The computed sensitivity map is first used to identify those regions of significant optimization potential at the same time where shape changes do not significantly alter the design; the latter is a severe constraint for aerodynamic optimization in the car industry. Local morphing of selected regions proportional to the sensitivities, is then applied to generate an improved shape that leads to a reduced drag force.
Keywords: Numerical Simulation, Car Shape Optimization, Adjoint method, Drag Force Reduction (1)