Experimental and Numerical Investigations of the Base Wake on an SUV Chalmers University of Technology

Format:

Conference/Event

Author/Creator:

Sterken, Sterken, author.

Contributor:

Löfdahl, L. (Lennart)

Sebben, Simone

Walker, Tim

Conference Name:

SAE 2013 World Congress & Exhibition (2013-04-16 : Detroit, Michigan, United States)

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource

Place of Publication:

Warrendale, PA SAE International 2013

Summary:

With the increase in fuel prices and the increasingly strictenvironmental legislations regarding CO₂ emissions, reduction ofthe total energy consumption of our society becomes more important.Passenger vehicles are partly responsible for this consumption dueto their strong presence in the daily life of most people.Therefore reducing the impact of cars on the environment can assistin decreasing the overall energy consumption. Even though severalfields have an impact on a passenger car's performance, thispaper will focus on the aerodynamic part and more specifically, thewake behind a vehicle.By definition a car is a bluff body on which the air resistanceis for the most part driven by pressure drag. This is caused by thewake these bodies create. Therefore analyzing the wakecharacteristics behind a vehicle is crucial if one would like toreduce drag. With the recent upgrade of wind tunnels with a movingbelt system, the opportunity has emerged to investigate the flowfield in the wake behind vehicles, matching closer the real on-roaddriving conditions.This study investigates experimentally and numerically the wakebehind a passenger car of an SUV type. Three configurations with asignificant change in CD have been chosen for the analysis. Theirwake shape together with their respective closure points have beenanalyzed using three planes, namely one x-plane, one y-plane andone z-plane.Results have shown that the numerical simulations correlate wellwith the experiments in wake shape and wake behavior. However inthe chosen configurations they underestimate the wake length. Adistinct interference of the traversing unit presence can be notedin the experimental results

Notes:

Vendor supplied data

Publisher Number:

2013-01-0464

Access Restriction:

Restricted for use by site license