Trabalho de Conclusão de Curso (Graduação)The pickups correspond to an important category of commercial vehicle once they combine passenger and cargo transport. The presence of an open trunk is responsible for a unique flow topology within a natural great interest for manufacturer’s research and that is gradually being more discussed on academic articles. This work presents a numerical and experimental study of the flow around a generic pickup based on the leaders of the light pickup market in Brazil. The proposed pickup model is composed only by flat surfaces and sharp edges and it’s derived from a dimensional study of five principal models of the category; a second version is conceived with the application of fillets on those edges. Simulations are performed using Reynolds Averaged Navier Stokes equations (RANS) on STAR-CCM+ solver with SST k-ω turbulence model; mesh is constituted of tetrahedral elements and the effect of a prismatic boundary layer is studied. On wind-tunnel, hot-wire anemometry and wall tufts visualization techniques are deployed for 1:10 scale model and serve as a reference for numerical results initial validation. Although a new geometry is tested, the results are similar to previous works. Rounding the model caused a reduction of 30% in the drag coefficient; no significant change is noted on the overall distribution of the structures on trunk and wake. Computational solution is prepared for reduced and full size pickup on typical highway velocities; for the range of tested scales (Re from 5×105 to 5×106), problem is believed to be independent of Reynolds, therefore wind-tunnel data that is not dynamic similar is still representative of real flow. This work is aimed to serve as a benchmark for future analyses so that more refined examination on CFD setup (mesh and solver) and application of other experimental routines are recommended. The investigation of drag reducing devices and the effects of other geometry variations is suggested as next steps
