Development of the Volvo Cars Full-Scale Wind Tunnel and Corresponding Virtual Model for Future Vehicle Certification
Research Project, 2014
– 2018
Volvo Cars has used measurement data from its own full-scale wind tunnel for vehicle development and verification of production cars since 1986. Virtual models (CFD) are used in parallel to wind tunnel testing as a tool for developing new cars and as a complement to testing on prototypes. Despite constant improvement of the virtual methods, there are still differences between predicted aerodynamic properties from CFD and measured values in the wind tunnel. The importance of these differences will be accentuated until 2020; partly because of new legislation on fuel consumption certification, and partly due to an increased use of virtual methods in pursuit of shorter development times. This project aims at improving the understanding on why differences between computations and tests occur. This will be done by investigating the flow field in the wind tunnel, and using this data to improve its numerical counterpart.
Participants
Lennart Löfdahl (contact)
Chalmers, Mechanics and Maritime Sciences (M2), Vehicle Engineering and Autonomous Systems
Collaborations
Volvo Cars
Göteborg, Sweden
Funding
VINNOVA
Project ID: 2014-01359
Funding Chalmers participation during 2014–2018
Related Areas of Advance and Infrastructure
Sustainable development
Driving Forces