Three Dimensional Bluff Body Aerodynamic Analysis for Automotive and Automotive Racing Applications 2006-01-3644

With energy conservation and pollutant emission of paramount importance in today's society, it has emphasized the need for aerodynamic drag reduction in the automotive sector. Innovative ideas, better visualization, reduced time in the design process, and cost effective “computational testing” is all put together is the use of Computational Fluid Dynamics. In the present study the analysis of the complex flow structure around a bluff body is presented. The importance and advantages of the numerical simulations are discussed. The quality of the mesh is of great importance and the types of grid generation schemes are presented here. The shape of the rear of the body has a marked influence on the body drag. The importance of the back slant angle and its effect on the flow structure and in turn its effect on the drag force of the body is presented. The importance of computational fluid dynamics in the field of racing applications whereby the flow field for cars in draft or cars in a cross flow that cannot be investigated in the wind tunnel are presented and discussed. The accuracy of the computational calculations is validated by comparison with available experimental data. The computational results are in good agreement with the experimental results.