Parametric study of asymmetric side tapering in constant cross wind conditions

Sports Utility Vehicles (SUVs) often have blunt rear end geometries for design and practicality, which is not typically aerodynamic. Drag can be reduced with a number of passive and active methods, which are generally prioritised at zero yaw, which is not entirely representative of the “on road” environment. As such, to combine a visually square geometry (at rest) with optimal drag reductions at non-zero yaw, an adaptive system that applies vertical side edge tapers independently is tested statically. A parametric study has been undertaken in Loughborough University’s Large Wind Tunnel with the ¼ scale Windsor Model. The aerodynamic effect of implementing asymmetric side tapering has been assessed for a range of yaw angles (0°, ±2.5°, ±5° and ±10°) on the force and moment coefficients. This adaptive system reduced drag at every non-zero yaw angle tested, from the simplest geometry (full body taper without wheels) to the most complex geometry (upper body taper with wheels) with varying levels of success; providing additional drag reductions from 3% to 125%. The system also shows potential to beneficially modify the cross wind stability of the geometry

Influence of short rear end tapers on the unsteady base pressure of a simplified ground vehicle

Short tapered sections on the trailing edge of the roof, underside and sides of a vehicle are a common feature of the aerodynamic optimization process and are known to have a significant effect on the base pressure and thereby the vehicle drag. In this paper the effects of such high aspect ratio chamfers on the time-dependent base pressure are investigated. Short tapered surfaces, with a chord approximately equal to 4% of the overall model length, were applied to the trailing edges of a simplified passenger car model (the Windsor Body) and base pressure studied via an array of surface pressure tappings. Two sets of configurations were tested. In the first case, a chamfer was applied only to the top or bottom trailing edge. A combination of taper angles was also considered. In the second case, the chamfer was applied to the side edges of the model base, leaving the horizontal trailing edges squared. In all configurations both the base and the slanted surfaces were covered with pressure taps for the entire width to ensure that any asymmetry was captured and two different sampling time were considered (respectively equal to 31.5 s and 630.0 s). The results show the effects produced on the base pressure by the presence of a long period bi-stable behavior, whose characteristics were further investigated by conditional averaging the recorded data and considering the distribution of the rms pressure values recorded over the entire model base

Parametric study of asymmetric side tapering in constant cross wind conditions

Copyright © 2018 SAE International. Sports Utility Vehicles (SUVs) often have blunt rear end geometries for design and practicality, which is not typically aerodynamic. Drag can be reduced with a number of passive and active methods, which are generally prioritised at zero yaw, which is not entirely representative of the “on road” environment. As such, to combine a visually square geometry (at rest) with optimal drag reductions at non-zero yaw, an adaptive system that applies vertical side edge tapers independently is tested statically. A parametric study has been undertaken in Loughborough University’s Large Wind Tunnel with the ¼ scale Windsor Model. The aerodynamic effect of implementing asymmetric side tapering has been assessed for a range of yaw angles (0°, ±2.5°, ±5° and ±10°) on the force and moment coefficients. This adaptive system reduced drag at every non-zero yaw angle tested, from the simplest geometry (full body taper without wheels) to the most complex geometry (upper body taper with wheels) with varying levels of success; providing additional drag reductions from 3% to 125%. The system also shows potential to beneficially modify the cross wind stability of the geometry

The effect of passive base ventilation on the aerodynamic drag of a generic SUV vehicle

Sports Utility Vehicles (SUVs) typically have a blunt rear end shape (for design and practicality), however this is not beneficial for aerodynamic drag. Drag can be reduced by a number of passive and active methods such as tapering and blowing into the base. In an effort to combine these effects and to reduce the drag of a visually square geometry slots have been introduced in the upper side and roof trailing edges of a squareback geometry, to take air from the freestream and passively injects it into the base of the vehicle to effectively create a tapered body. This investigation has been conducted in the Loughborough University’s Large Wind Tunnel with the ¼ scale generic SUV model. The basic aerodynamic effect of a range of body tapers and straight slots have been assessed for 0° yaw. This includes force and pressure measurements for most configurations. The slots generate useful, but small, drag reductions with the best configurations giving reductions in drag coefficient (Cd) of approximately 0.01, whereas the best taper configurations reduce Cd by close to 0.035. The slots also have a tendency to modify the lift

A fully coupled, 6 degree-of-freedom, aerodynamic and vehicle handling crosswind simulation using the DrivAer model

In a real-world environment, a vehicle on the road is subjected to a range of flow yaw angles, the most severe of which can impact handling and stability. A fully coupled, six degrees-of-freedom CFD and vehicle handling simulation has modelled the complete closed loop system. Varying flow yaw angles are introduced via time dependent boundary conditions and aerodynamic loads predicted, whilst a handling model running simultaneously calculates the resulting vehicle response. Updates to the vehicle position and orientation within the CFD simulation are achieved using the overset grid method. Using this approach, a crosswind simulation that follows the parameters of ISO 12021:2010 (Sensitivity to lateral wind - Open-loop test method using wind generator input), was performed using the fastback variant of the DrivAer model. Fully coupled aerodynamic and vehicle response was compared to that obtained using the simplified quasi-steady and unsteady, one way coupled method. Between the quasi-steady and unsteady simulations, an overshoot in aerodynamic yaw moment for the latter resulted in a larger lateral deviation of approximately 8%. However, the differences in responses between the transient, one-way and fully coupled methods were small for this particular geometry. It is expected that by increasing gust length, differences will appear, as the vehicle is exposed to the larger flow yaw angle for a longer period

Computational simulations of unsteady flow field and spray impingement on a simplified automotive geometry

Accurately predicting vehicle soiling is important for maintaining a clear view for the driver and on board camera and sensor systems. In this work we study the soiling process on a scale model of generic SUV body, which is a vehicle type particularly susceptible to base contamination. The Spalart-Allmaras formulation of the IDDES model is used to compute the continuous phase and the dispersed phase is computed using Lagrangian particle tracking, both concurrently with the flow-field, and also as a post-processing approach using time averaged statistical information of turbulence in a stochastic dispersion model. The results are compared against experimental data and the discrepancies discussed with regard to the predicted and measured flow field and base pressure distribution. Good agreement with experiment is shown for the contamination pattern using the fully unsteady method, but the more economic stochastic model does not recover some important details. This is attributed to the role of spatially correlated flow structures around the wheel in entraining particles into the wake that the stochastic model cannot accurately represent. This leads to the conclusion that base soiling is a function of unsteady modes, elimination of which may potentially reduce spray deposition

Investigation into the dynamics of wheel spray released from a rotating tyre of a simplified vehicle model

Accurate prediction of vehicle soiling is an important step towards being able to understand and reduce this problem. Previous work has shown that eddy resolving CFD methods are capable of predicting the soiling pattern on the surface of automotive geometries when a known spray source is used. Here the influence of the wheel, ground and spray boundary conditions on a simulation of rear soiling of a generic SUV are investigated. The inclusion of rotating wheels led to a greater vertical distribution of the soiling pattern whereas the moving ground plane led to increased lateral distribution. The total soiling rate with moving wheels and ground, as well as with the offset between wheel and ground removed, was approximately 50% higher than the experimental conditions. When spray was released from around the rotating wheel it was found that a large majority of the parcels which ended up on the base originated from close to the contact patch, indicating that this is the most important region for the tyre spray model. A model based on a measured distribution of droplet sizes from downstream of the wheel gave good agreement with previous experimental work for the spray topology around the contact patch

Modelling the effect of spray breakup, coalescence and evaporation on vehicle surface contamination dynamics

Vehicle surface contamination is an important design consideration as it affects drivers' vision and the performance of on board camera and sensor systems. Previous work has shown that eddy resolving methods are able to accurately capture the flow field and particle transport, leading to good agreement for vehicle soiling with experiments. What is less clear is whether the secondary break-up, coalescence and evaporation of liquid particles play an important role in spray dynamics. The work reported here attempts to answer this and also give an idea of the computational cost associated with these extra physics models. A quarter scale generic SUV model is used as a test case in which the continuous phase is solved using the Spalart-Allmaras IDDES model. The dispersed phase is computed concurrently with the continuous phase using the Lagrangian approach. The TAB secondary break-up and the stochastic O'Rourke coalescence models are used. The spray's rate of evaporation is calculated based on the relative humidity encountered on a typical October day in Britain. The secondary break-up model is found to be redundant, possibly due to the properties of spray. The coalescence model predicts high coalescence of particles close to the source and improves agreement with experiment, although at a high computational cost. Including evaporation removes small particles from the simulation and reduces overall contamination. When used along the coalescence model, evaporation is found to be negligible as it does not influence large particles to the same extent as it affects small particles. This suggests that droplet physics models need to be considered together as they can have a strong effect on each other as well as vehicle soiling. Here, we show that coalescence can be accounted for by using the time-averaged spray, obtained outside the region of high coalescence. This gives a very good agreement with experiment

An objective measure for automotive surface contamination

Surface contamination, or soiling, of the exterior of road vehicles can be unsightly, reduce visibility and customer satisfaction and, with the increasing application of surface mounted sensors, can degrade the performance of advanced driver assistance systems. Experimental methods of evaluating surface contamination are increasingly used in the product development process, but the results are generally subjective. The use of computational methods for predicting contamination make objective measures possible, but comparable data from experiment is an important validation requirement. This paper describes the development of an objective measure of surface contamination arising during experiments. A series of controlled experiments using Ultra Violet (UV) dye doped water are conducted to develop a robust methodology. This process is then applied to a simplified contamination test. An image of a surface, illuminated by an UV lamp, is captured after every test along with a calibration vessel with known fluid depth. The image is processed to remove the influence of variation in incident illumination. The total mass of contamination deposited is then calculated using the calibration vessel to provide the required local fluid depths. The paper includes validation of the technique

A study of computational methods for wake structure and base pressure prediction of a generic SUV model with fixed and rotating wheels

This study is an evaluation of computational methods in reproducing experimental data for a generic SUV geometry and an assessment on the influence of fixed and rotating wheels for this geometry. Initially, comparisons are made in wake structure and base pressures between several CFD codes and experimental data. It was shown that steady-state RANS methods are unsuitable for this geometry due to a large scale unsteadiness in the wake caused by separation at the sharp trailing edge and rear wheel wake interactions. URANS offered no improvements in wake prediction despite a significant increase in computational cost. DES and Lattice Boltzmann methods showed the best agreement with experimental results in both wake structure and base pressure, with LBM running in approximately a fifth of the time for DES