WAKE STRUCTURE AND DRAG OF VEHICLES WITH ROUNDED REAR EDGES

The wake structure at the rear of road vehicle is known to be of prime importance in aerodynamics performances [3]: about 30% of the total pressure drag derives from the rear end of the vehicle. While production vehicle present significant curvature at the rear end, most of fundamental aerodynamic analyses were carried out around simplified car models presenting sharp edges at the rear. Since recently, very few papers addressed the question of rear edges curvature in aerodynamics performances. Thacker et al. Showed that rounding the edge between the end of the roof and the rear slant suppressed the separation over the rear window and resulted in 10% drag reduction. Fuller et al.Studied the effect on spatial stability and intensity of the pillar vortex when rounding the side rear pillars. For both of these works, the analysis was focused on the flow behaviour over the rear window: the impact of the rear end rounding on the near wake topology was not discussed. The current study aims to understand how the use of rounded pillars with respect to sharp edges modifies the flow field (over the body surface and in the near wake) and hence the global drag. Moreover, an “academic” and an “industrial” model will be characterized to discuss the applicability of simplified models to simulate properly the sensitivity of pillars rounding

Aerodynamic performances of rounded fastback vehicle

Experimental and numerical analyzes were performed to investigate the aerodynamic performances of a realistic vehicle with a different afterbody rounding. This afterbody rounding resulted in a reduction to drag and lift at a yaw angle of zero, while the crosswind performances were degraded. Rounding the side pillars generated moderate changes to the drag and also caused important lift reductions. A minor effect on the drag force was found to result from the opposite drag effects on the slanted and vertical surfaces. The vorticity distribution in the near wake was also analyzed to understand the flow field modifications due to the afterbody rounding. Crosswind sensitivity was investigated to complete the analysis of the aerodynamic performances of the rounded edges models. Additional tests were conducted with geometry modifications as spoilers and underbody diffusers

Modélisation par termes source de générateurs de vortex pour le contrôle d'écoulement : Validations expérimentales et optimisations

Cette étude porte sur la manipulation d'écoulement à l'aide de VG. Pour limiter la taille des maillages dans les simulations numériques, la géométrie des VG n'est pas explicitement représentée: les VG sont modélisés par des termes sources incorporés aux équations de quantité de mouvement. Nous présentons ici la validation de cette modélisation par des mesures expérimentales et des simulations avec des VG maillés sur une configuration de plaque plane. Une optimisation des paramètres de forme des VG est ensuite menée suivant différentes méthodes en comparant le coût calcul

Influence of afterbody rounding on the near wake of fastback vehicle

Experimental and numerical analyzes were performed to investigate the aerodynamic performances of a realistic vehicle with different afterbody rounding. Rounding the side pillars generated moderate changes in drag and important lift reductions. The minor effect on the drag force was found to result from opposite drag effects on the slanted and vertical surfaces. The vorticity distribution in the near wake was also analyzed to understand the flow field modifications due to afterbody rounding

Drag and crosswind sensitivity of rounded fastback vehicle

Experimental and numerical analyzes were performed to investigate the aerodynamic performances of a realistic vehicle with a different afterbody rounding. This afterbody rounding resulted in a reduction to drag and lift at a yaw angle of zero, while the crosswind performances were degraded. Rounding the side pillars generated moderate changes to the drag and also caused important lift reductions. A minor effect on the drag force was found to result from the opposite drag effects on the slanted and vertical surfaces. The vorticity distribution in the near wake was also analyzed to understand the flow field modifications due to the afterbody rounding. Crosswind sensitivity was investigated to complete the analysis of the aerodynamic performances of the rounded edges models

Front propagation in laminar cellular flows : an experimental study

Front propagation in different kinds of laminar flows is investigated experimentally. Images of front propagation as well as data on their mean velocity show that a kinematic model of propagation is more relevant here than models based on homogeneization procedures

Front propagation in a vortex chain : a least time criterion

International audienc

Effective front propagation in steady cellular flows : a least time criterion

4 p.We experimentally study the propagation of a reaction front in a chain of counter-rotating vortices. The front is induced by an autocatalytic chemical reaction in an aqueous solution stirred by electro-convective means. The front propagates by getting quickly engulfed in a vortex and by slowly crossing the separatrix to the next vortex. Its mean velocity along the chain increases with the flow intensity but shows both a bending and a dependence on the vortex aspect ratio. We recover these features within a kinematic model of front propagation by seeking the quickest front path through a vortex

Front propagation in a laminar cellular flow: shapes, velocities and least time criterion

International audienceWe experimentally investigate the propagation of chemical fronts in steady laminar cellular flows at large Péclet numbers and large Damköhler numbers. Fronts are generated in an aqueous solution by an autocatalytic oxydoreduction reaction. They propagate in a channel in which a chain of counter-rotative parallel vortices is induced by electroconvection. We first accurately determine the form, the dynamics and the mean velocity of these fronts in the whole Hele-Shaw regime of the flow. We then address the modeling of the evolution of their mean velocity with the flow amplitude. The structure of the front wakes yields us to reject an effective reaction-diffusion wave as a relevant model for large-scale front propagation. On the other hand, analysis of the role of front heads brings us to introduce a kinematic model at the vortex scale for uncovering the front dynamics. This model addresses the propagation of the front leading point in a chain of vortices whose field is modeled by a two-dimensional solid rotation complemented by a boundary layer. Interestingly, it sensitively relies on the effective trajectory followed by the front leading point. To account for this, a competition is worked out among a one-parameter family of potential trajectories. The actual trajectory is then selected as the fastest one with quite a good agreement with measurements and observations. In particular, the measured effective front velocities are well recovered from the model, including their intrinsic dependence on the boundary layer width. Accordingly, effective front propagation in a laminar steadily stirred medium is thus understood from an optimization principle similar to the Fermat principle of ray propagation in heterogeneous media