Development of Volvo Cars Full-Scale Wind Tunnel and Corresponding Virtual Model for Future Vehicle Certification

Research Project, 2015 – 2018

Volvo Cars has since 1986 used their own wind tunnel, where the measured values are used as basis for requirements, development of new projects and verification of production cars. For 15 years, the measured difference in drag between variants is used to some extent as a basis for creating road load curves associated with fuel consumption certification to the appropriate authorities. Parallel with this, virtual tools are used in the development of new cars, as a complement to physical testing. Future legislative requirements proposals will make it possible to replace some costly and time-consuming coast down testing with tests in wind tunnel, if we can present enough evidence that the differences measured in the lab environment are relevant. To take the next steps into improved simulation, requires an expanded understanding of how the physical environment of a wind tunnel affects the results. The goal is to identify any weaknesses and eliminate them for both physical and virtual tools.