Aerodynamic Performance Assessment on Typical SUV Car Model by On-Road Surface Pressure Mapping Method 2021-28-0188

Aerodynamics of on-road vehicles has come to the limelight in the recent years. Better aerodynamic design of vehicle would improve vehicle fuel efficiency with increased acceleration performance. To obtain best aerodynamic body, the series of design modifications and different testing methodologies must be involved in vehicle design and validation phase. Wind tunnel aerodynamic force measurement, road load determination and computational fluid dynamics were the common methods used to evaluate the aerodynamic behavior of the vehicle body. As a novel approach, the present work discusses about the on-road (Real time) testing methodology that is aimed to evaluate the aerodynamic performance of vehicle body using surface pressure mapping. A 64-Channel digital pressure scanner has been utilized in this work for mapping the pressure at different locations of the typical vehicle body. The potential local zones in the vehicle surface being identified for air stagnation and flow separation away from the vehicle body. The pressure patches were pasted temporarily in the thrust zones and the surface pressure intensity being captured by pressure scanner in on-road vehicle testing were validated against the downsized vehicle experimented in wind tunnel. Both wind tunnel and on-road experimental testing were carried for vehicle being fitted with and without spoiler and underbody covers. The aerodynamic impact of vehicle being integrated with and without add-on devices can be identified with the help of pressure trend mapped on vehicle surface from on-road testing. Surface pressure trend being obtained from on-road pressure mapping is correlating well with wind tunnel method thus, real time surface pressure measurement would act as an alternate technique to validate the vehicle design modifications.