Prediction of exterior wind noise generated by a side-mirror of an SUV

Paper in proceeding, 2016

Simulation methods predicting the aerodynamic and aeroacoustic performances of car components at an early stage of their design cycle are of the high importance. This paper focuses on the validation of an acoustic simulation technique for side-mirror noise for observers located outside of the car compartment, typical to component testing in anechoic wind tunnels. A hybrid simulation approach is accounted, where flow and acoustic-fields are separated. The flow field is computed a priori with an incompressible flow solver. The acoustic-field is then computed based on the information extracted from the CFD solver. A surface dipole based acoustic simulation technique is employed where the unsteady aerodynamic pressure loading on the side-mirror surface is treated as acoustic source field. The effect of the volumetric sources is then accounted in the surface source definition without exporting them from the CFD solver. The paper provides the acoustic simulations for two configurations on side mirror. The results are compared to data obtained in wind-tunnel measurement on the SUV.