Aerodynamic Wheel Jackets
Manufacturing and fitment of low-clearance wheel covers to minimise internal flow
Photo of left wheel jacket with battery cooling attachments
Overview
Wheel jackets form an integral part of our Solar Car's aerodynamic package. They are close-fitting covers that hug the wheels at less than 10mm clearance, containing the turbulent and energetic air kicked up by rotating wheels, reducing aerodynamic drag.
I produced this system through the laminate design, manufacturing, and integration stages, ensuring stiffness and tight tolerances throughout fitment.
One half of wheel jacket showing tight clearance to be maintained throughout fitment
Manufacturing
Manufacturing of the Wheel Jackets was conducted through a vacuum-consolidated wet layup process into a fiberglass mould. The mould itself was taken off a surface-prepped foam plug we machined. This was our first production fiberglass mould.
Wheel Jacket mould production and final mould being release coated
The laminate design was optimised for global stiffness. A global +/- 45 layer carried shear loads through mounting, while directional fibers with foam core ribs provided stiffness reinforcement in directions of interest. Local stiffness was achieved through de-coring and epoxy backfilling at the central mounting points. On-road testing also saw the addition of stiffening L-brackets to stabilise the top of the wheel jacket with the suspension upright.
Vacuum bagging timelapse after hand lay-up. An envelope bag was required due to geometric constraints.
Fitment
Installation of the wheel jackets involved mounting and fitment onto the suspension uprights, interfacing around brakes and brake lines while maintaining precise positioning for adequate wheel clearance.
This involved heavy use of templating in the field, as well as plenty of sanding and filing.
Inside wheel jacket fitted with wheel off, showing positioning with brakes and hub
This was our team's first attempt at Wheel Jackets, so there's certainly many improvements to make. More distributed mounting points will allow for more stability in the system, and the design iteself can be changed to improve geometric and laminate stiffness. Nevertheless, we managed to successfully produce and integrate high-precision wheel jackets with minimal resources and experience, working reliably after some minimal mount stiffness modifications
Very tight side clearance of wheel jacket!
Assembled wheel jacket, including button clips for skirts