• Mr. Kyle Knight
  • Corvid Technologies
  • Holden Auditorium (Room 112)
  • 4:00 p.m.
  • Faculty Hosts: Dr. Rakesh Kapania and Dr. Joseph Schetz

Motorsport teams from F1 to NASCAR increasingly rely on aerodynamics to gain a competitive advantage on the race track. Corvid Technologies employs RavenCFD and onsite analysis to help motorsports teams improve vehicle aerodynamics and win on race day. The lessons learned on track are also applied to production cars, which require drag-reducing components aerodynamic components to decrease fuel consumption. This presentation will review the specialized capabilities of RavenCFD, the common methods for implementing vehicle design changes, and a case study of drag reduction on a low-drag production vehicle, the Aptera. This case study will show the methods used to highlight drag sensitivities and make modifications in a rapid turnaround time.

Biography:

Kyle Knight lives in Charlotte and is currently the Hendrick Motorsports Team Lead at Corvid Technologies. The position requires on site involvement with the four Hendrick teams. The position includes flow analysis to identify design sensitivities, adjusting components, running design iterations in CFD, and finally wind tunnel testing of the design changes. The ultimate goal is to increase vehicle performance on track (aka WIN!).   

Mr. Knight is a graduate of Virginia Tech (Aerospace Engineering, B.S. 2009, M.S. 2011)