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Wind tunnel test has been playing a major role in the research and development (R&D) for a racing car. With the aid of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation the development cycle and overall cost are greatly reduced while new and creative ideas can be easily tested on virtual platform with accuracy. In this paper a general overview of the racing vehicle R&D process is provided and a CFD simulation and analysis for a 50% scaled car model is presented in sufficient detail, with an emphasis on addressing its aerodynamic aspects. Good agreements are obtained with a ±5% error between the simulation results and wind tunnel measurements.

Researches of multiple physics phenomena become more and more important in industry and academy. Fluid Structure Interface (FSI) is one of these multiple phenomena that happen more often than not. During recent years, numerical analyses of FSI were fast in development with the constantly advancing progress of computer technology. MpCCI (Mesh based parallel Code Coupling Interface) is a typical product of FSI. MpCCI has been developed at the Fraunhofer-Institute SCAI in order to provide an application-independent interface for the coupling of different simulation codes. Although FSI includes both flow induced displacement and thermal flow induced thermal stress, latter has received less attention. One of the authors has studied the methods of data transformation between the thermal fluid analysis and thermal stress analysis, and described the advantages and disadvantages of these methods in weak conjugate analysis [1].