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The largest open-source dataset of car designs, including their aerodynamics
- WhatsName 2y agoI recently wanted to design a flying wing/rc plane. Is there any FOSS to get reasonable results for aerodynamics?
- jpb0104 2y agoThis guy seems to have a good handle on diy aero. Both air and water. https://youtube.com/@rctestflight https://youtube.com/@rctestflight
- nickmcc 2y agoCheck out: https://ecalc.ch/wingdesigner.htm https://ecalc.ch/wingdesigner.htm
- BoostandEthanol 2y agoOpenFOAM I think is the go to for open source CFD, although I’ve never tried it myself. There’s also XFOIL which, since you’re talking about a flying wing, might be enough for your use case. Even for a finicky flying wing, I think if you keep an eye on the way the pitching moment shifts with pitch, I don’t see why picking an airfoil shape for the frame and hand calcs couldn’t get you to a design that flies reasonably.
- Stevvo 2y agoThe usual way is to use a wing with known aerodynamics. Choose one on airfoiltools.com
- SonicScrub 2y agoUsing a computational fluids model like OpenFOAM is overkill for reasonable estimates of aerodynamic performance and stability, provided you stick to normal-ish designs. The term you want to Google is "vortex lattice" and/or "potential flow" solvers, of which there are many open source softwares available specifically geared towards typical aircraft configurations, with simple, easy to use interfaces. Some good ones to look at to get started with nice guis - VSP Aero - XFOIL (for 2D airfoil analysis only, also generates inputs for 3D VLM solvers) - AVL And some others if you want perhaps a little higher fidelity, and don't mind text/code interfaces: -FreeWake - Datcom (not technically a potential flow models, but a database) To get the most value out of these softwares, you will need some background in aeronautics. You need to have an understanding of what a potential flow models can and cannot accurately model. It also helps to have knowledge about what forms aircraft stability/control and performance data is typically communicated in, as these softwares will use that terminology.
- kingkongjaffa 2y agoI used xfoil in my aerodynamics masters degree, it absolutely good enough for hobby applications
- SonicScrub 2y agoThe 2D model alone maybe be sufficient for OPs needs, but I'd advocate for going at least a little further with some form of 3D model. The wing tip effects are significant enough to warrant some form of "next step" after the initial 2D analysis. Although simple algebraic relationships are likely good enough to satisfy this end. However, the 3D tools above give you a little bit more, that I feel warrant their consideration by the op. These models can yield performance of wing-tail-body configurations that include wake effects. They also can give stability analysis in both longitudinal/lateral axes. The stability effects being especially important if OP wants to design a flying-wing, which are a tad more challenging to get right than just slapping a "good-enough" sized tail on a classic config plane.
- addaon 2y agoFor this type of problem, unless you are trying to set range or climb rate records, understanding lift and moment (and control derivatives) is more important than accurately modeling drag. Panel methods shine at this, and are both easier to use and much much faster than CFD — enough that wrapping them in optimizers is trivial. I personally prefer AVL, but there are other open source alternatives as well.
- jbay808 2y agoThis project might be exactly what you're looking for: https://github.com/peterdsharpe/AeroSandbox https://github.com/peterdsharpe/AeroSandbox
- roeles 2y agoXflr5? OpenFOAM? I've used neither but I hear others in the gliding and model airplane scene talk about those.
- ericjmorey 2y agoDatafiles available at: https://dataverse.harvard.edu/dataverse/DrivAerNet https://dataverse.harvard.edu/dataverse/DrivAerNet Issue tracking at: https://github.com/Mohamedelrefaie/DrivAerNet https://github.com/Mohamedelrefaie/DrivAerNet
- qwertox 2y agoPaper at https://arxiv.org/abs/2406.09624 https://arxiv.org/abs/2406.09624 ("DrivAerNet++: A Large-Scale Multimodal Car Dataset with Computational Fluid Dynamics Simulations and Deep Learning Benchmarks")
- Y_Y 2y ago[flagged]
- liamdgray 2y agoYes. They had verbed it by the 12th century, according to: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/speed#word-history https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/speed#word-histor...
- Y_Y 2y agoOnly in the archaic sense 3a, "to prosper in an undertaking", which is surely not what's meant in the TFA.
- anon291 2y agoI sped read the title so didn't notice
- mmooss 2y agoWhile I don't always love 'denominalization' (if I that's the right word), the verb 'speed' is a common one, e.g., 'speed up'. Every word we use was created at some point, often in the same way. There is nothing magical about the people and the words they created in 1824 that makes them better than us and words we create in 2024, except perhaps that the 1824 words we still use have stood the test of time. Also, as far as I can tell, the verb form is as old as the noun form.
- morphle 2y agoIts a few hundred gigabyte. You can only login with an institutional account. My research institute is very small, can I borrow someone's login credentials? (email in profile).
- hackernewds 2y agoIt is not meant for non credentialed individuals?
- gus_massa 2y agoFrom the repo > Please note the (CC BY-NC 4.0) license terms, as outlined in the License section. In spite of the title and the article says "open souce" many times, it's free as in "source abailable".
- Intermernet 2y agoBeing licensed as it is, it needs to be publicly available. This availability can be on request, but that request can be made by anyone. The watering down of the legal definitions of Open Source and Creative Commons is a death of a thousand cuts. Every single misrepresentation and false claim needs to be called out and shut down. It's hard to stress how important these concepts are to the current state of the world. Many people say "stop being pedantic" or "the source can be read, therefore it's open source". The reason you currently have a secure server operating system that can use state of the art encryption on affordable commodity hardware is that "Open Source" has a legal definition. Please, let's not break it.
- CorrectHorseBat 2y agoNot trying to be pedantic, but you literally asked for false claims to be called out and shut down. There is no open source license (that I know of) which requires public availability. If there is a requirement of providing sources, it's always a requirement of providing sources with a derived work. If you are not releasing derived works to anyone you don't need to release any source to anyone either. So called permissive licenses don't even have any requirement on providing sources whatsoever.
- MichaelTheGeek 2y agoVery nice.
- tomjen3 2y agoO great. More cars that look identical.
- dietr1ch 2y agoIsn't this more efficient? Cheaper parts, everyone benefits from improvements to it. I wouldn't mind if there were only a handful of designs around with some tweaks depending on performance/comfort. Also, nowadays many different models share parts, like lights or rearview mirrors, showing there's a need for efficiency and scale bigger than the made-up need for fashionable cars.
- grecy 2y agoI’ve always been shocked there are not way more common parts between vehicles and brands. Alternators, starters, ac compressors and so much more could just be small, medium, large, extra large. The price would drop dramatically.
- psychlops 2y ago> The price would drop dramatically. Aaaaand, that's why they aren't modular. Take a look at something with obvious common parts like a side mirror. They are all intentionally designed adding special shapes to make them as unique as possible to the car. Never a simple square or rectangle.
- cwayon 2y agoGood design is emotional. It adds spark to most of our everyday sightseeing, inspires and is too often overlooked- at least in recent times. Regarding the recent trends among car design... We are in a dark age. I agree that many parts can be interchangeable but modularity can be done in a way that doesn't result in every car looking like the blobs we see about today. I wouldn't mind if there were only a handful of designs around with slight variations in trim and specs -so long as I like those designs of course! I know that is subjective so lets keep things interesting and focus on making things that get the job done but also in varying styles. Both can be achieved. The need for fashion is made up, yes- but so is everything else. There's a balance between overly individualistic cars and the most cost efficient, reliable and uninspiring 4 door. Lately we have been leaning too far into the latter.
- RobotToaster 2y ago> Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial Non-commercial licenses are not open source.
- csours 2y agoI wonder if you might say something more substantial? This seems like a low effort nitpick as written.
- spookie 2y agoFails at criteria 6.
- fc417fc802 2y agoPointing out a material misrepresentation is hardly a nitpick. I'm quite surprised to see an MIT affiliated publication making such an error. That said since it isn't source code I think the end result is probably a bit different. Unless I misunderstand something you could still use the data to further a commercial venture. You just can't directly commercialize the dataset itself. Conceptually similar to using a GPL'd software tool as an end user while performing work on a proprietary project.
- gus_massa 2y agoI don't know how you can use this for a comercial task. For example CC explains you can't use a CC-NC song in a comercial video. I expect that if you use the data to design a car and sell it the authors will have a similar interpretation.
- fc417fc802 2y agoWouldn't that be because you directly commercialize the video and the song is part of the video? Therefore you are directly commercializing the song. It doesn't seem like there would be any legal barrier to feeding the dataset into an algorithm and making use of the result (depending on the implementation details of the algorithm I suppose).
- bmitc 2y agoFor what use is this?
- aquafox 2y agoSomewhat related: Can someone tell me why all those new electric cars are so poorly designed in terms of size and weight? Most of them weight over 2t and have a large frontal area (VW ID.4 is the prime example). I just want an economical family vehicle (lightweight, hatchback design) and there aren't that many options. Isn't that something loads of people want or am I the exotic one?
- bagels 2y agoPeople are not buying as many compact cars. Electric cars need large, massive batteries to have a useful range. It's as simple as those two things.
- wyager 2y ago> I just want an economical family vehicle Then buy an ICE vehicle. It's a more mature, cost-effective, and power/energy-dense technology
- aquafox 2y agoBut the efficiency factor of an EV is 60% as opposed to 20% for an ICE, which means you can get a similar range with much lower energy density.
- sedatk 2y ago…at the expense of door handles and good looking tires.
- bgnn 2y agoGasoline has 100x more energy density per kg than Lithium batteries. As you said EVs are 3x more efficient so per kg dofference is 33x. Electic motors are much more compact and lighter than ICEs but not enough to close the 33x gap for the same weight. Thus for a similar range EVs need to be heavier. My ICE car is 1300kg and it can drive ~1000km with a full tank of 62 liters.
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- 3abiton 2y agoCan't wait to see this in GTA6 mod.
- tromp 2y agoCan someone show what the most aerodynamic cars in the dataset look like? Does it specify the drag coefficient? Curious to know how many of the 8000 shapes reach < 2.0, should be at most a handful.
- tromp 2y ago> reach < 2.0 I meant < 0.20 of course, such as the 0.19 achieved by the ill-fated https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Motors_EV1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Motors_EV1
- Koala_ice 2y agoThis is also available at https://caemldatasets.org/ https://caemldatasets.org/ with no access restrictions.
- vincnetas 2y agoSo to clarify, this does not include models of actual cars. This is a set of models generated by randomising some parameters. Basically it's a set or random car shapes based of one template.