Aerodynamic Shape Optimiser
Status: in development
Given an STL describing the volume that must fit inside (people, cargo, wheels, mechanism), search for the enclosure shape that minimises drag area.
Why this tool
Chapter 5 makes the case that above 20–30 km/h aerodynamic drag already dominates rolling resistance, and that shape and frontal area matter more than powertrain efficiency for a vehicle in this class. Solver exist but are not easy to use. The goal is to provide a tool that will both compute the drag force on an existing vehicle and given everything that must fit inside, what is the lowest-drag skin that contains it?
Automotive CFD workflows assume a styling department, a wind tunnel, and a shape that is already roughly decided. What we need is closer to the inverse: the interior volume is the hard constraint (a human being does not compress, and Designing for Humans forbids us from squeezing them to win a drag number), and the shape should follow from it rather than the other way around.
Why it is worth publishing on its own
This is one of the tools here that are useful to other teams immediately, without waiting for a finished Neodrive vehicle. Anyone building an enclosed light vehicle faces the same problem. If you have people in your team to do theses kind of computation, come chat. A working, documented, open version of this is a contribution to the category in its own right, and it costs us nothing to share.
Open questions
- How well does the predicted drag match reality, and against what reference?
- Does the optimiser produce shapes that are actually manufacturable, or only mathematically optimal?
- How much drag are we willing to trade for entry, exit, and visibility?