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Almost all published results of wake measurements for ground vehicles or similar shapes have included very limited information on streamwise development of wake structures. This is typically a result of the fact that the wake measurements have been conducted as parts of particular vehicle development efforts. So the focus has been on the incremental changes in the wakes associated with alternative geometries or buildup of various parts. The objectives are typically reached by limiting the surveys to a single streamwise plane. The present study, by contrast, is a study of wake development for a series of relatively simple rectangular shapes with radiused edges with a systematic variation in the ratio of height to width or “Aspect Ratio”.

The work presented here is a further step in a continuing effort by the authors to study and document the aerodynamic effect of varying aspect ratio, ground clearance, and underbody roughness for basic rectangular shapes with radiused edges in ground effect. Previous papers by the authors have presented extensive wake data for a range of aspect ratios and underbody roughness conditions. Force and moment data have been published for various aspect ratios, underbody roughness, and ground clearance. In this paper, additional wake data showing the effects of variation in ground clearance is presented. The focus of this paper is on analyses to make progress toward a rational correlation between body characteristics, the forces, and the measured wake properties. A parametric analysis is presented linking the effects of the parameters varied in the study to the changes in the aerodynamic forces and moments. Results show correlations between the wake flows and the force results.