Search Results

Cargo trucks are one of the most important and flexible ways of moving cargo within inlands. In some countries, such as Brazil, the economy relies on them to transport all kinds of products, from field and factory to consumer. In order to reduce freight prices, beside route optimization, truck manufactures started to focus on the aerodynamics development of those vehicles, in order to improve the efficiency, reducing fuel consumption and emissions. Although the truck aerodynamics development is important, most vehicles are not manufactured or don’t consider the truck trailer, which plays a key role in the full aerodynamics performance of the truck, once it might increase the front area and also change the overall aero performance.

The advances in High Performance Computing-HPC and CPU's sizes and processing power, combined with new computational codes, which are capable of coupling different types of simulation, are the main contributors for the increasing number of the Multiphysics simulations inside the industry. Multiphysics are defined as simulations involving multiple physical models or multiple simultaneous physical phenomena. Among some examples, spray modeling is of great interest in several branches of the industry and, with the development on algorithms and codes, simulations presented reliable results, compared to experiments. This work aims to contribute to both Multiphysics and spray modelling by reproducing a rainstorm condition, focused on a vehicular application. This work objective is evaluate the possibility and feasibility to reproduce virtually rain storm condition on a highway checking water intrusion at Air Intake System - AIS and compare with physical test.

Environment concerns lead the automakers to invest resources and put research in engine downsize to reduce carbon emission. Turbo charge is a possibility due to its fuel consumption and emission reduction without compromise the performance. Nowadays, it is becoming common observe high performance small cars due to high torque and power available. In consequence, brake system need to dissipate more kinetic energy without adding mass or costs. Modern passenger cars require a high-speed brake system. To achieve proper brake system cooling, the rotor must be ventilated and designed to optimize the energy dissipated, which is generated by friction between pad and disk. Some approaches consider the rotor as a centrifugal air pump and the design rule is to improve the airflow inside the vanes. The approach considering a brake rotor similar to centrifugal air pump rotor may be considered as limited approach, once it simplifies the heat transfer phenomena inside chamber.

The brake system is of vital importance when engineering a new vehicle due to its implication with both safety and overall performance. One of the main questions that arise when designing the brake system, not only in terms of performance but also in efficiency and fuel economy is how to make a better brake rotor. When designing the brake rotor, thinking about mass reduction and design optimization is a desire not only for high-performance motorsport, but for daily user applications. The impact on the vehicle performance would lead to improved fuel economy and braking safety. In this work, we propose to exploit some characteristics that can optimize the rotor design to achieve better performance, compared to a baseline design proposed. Some constructive characteristics are kept constant such as the rotor diameter and thickness. The use of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations is considered in this study as a benchmark to future physical prototypes experiments.