Alternative Approach in Ground Vehicle Wake Analysis
Paper in proceeding, 2012

In this paper an alternative visualisation approach of the wake behind different vehicle body shapes with simplified and fully-detailed underbody has been proposed and analysed. This allows for a more clear distinction among the different wake regions. This visualisation is based on a transformation of the cartesian coordinates of a chosen wake plane to polar coordinates, using as filter velocities lower than the freestream. This transformation produces a polar wake plot that enables the division and quantification of the wake in a number of sections. In this paper, local drag has been used to visualise the drag contribution of the flow by the different sections. Visually, a balanced wake can be observed by the concentric behaviour of the polar plots. Alternatively, integration of the local drag of each degree section as a ratio of the total local drag yields a quantifiable approach of the wake uniformity, where different sections contribute equally to the local drag, with the exception of the wheels.

coordinate transformation

wake

Local drag

ground vehicle

Author

Lennert Sterken

Chalmers, Applied Mechanics, Vehicle Engineering and Autonomous Systems

Lennart Löfdahl

Chalmers, Applied Mechanics, Vehicle Engineering and Autonomous Systems

Simone Sebben

Chalmers, Applied Mechanics, Vehicle Engineering and Autonomous Systems

Tim Walker

World Academy Of Science, Engineering and Technology

Vol. 68 104-111

Areas of Advance

Transport

Subject Categories

Vehicle Engineering

More information

Created

10/7/2017