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The geometric shape of the tires can have a large influence on the aerodynamic drag of a passenger car as it has been shown already in different publications like for example [1, 2, 3]. However, to optimize the shape of a tire, nowadays quite some effort is needed in terms of wind tunnel time and costs for prototype tires. In this paper an approach to optimize the tire's shape in model scale is described, which can help to reduce both development time and costs. The first step in the development of this method was to verify that the aerodynamic effects of the tire geometry in model scale are comparable to full scale tests. This was achieved by measuring different production tires in full scale and also by measuring the quarter scale version of the same tires. The only difference between the original and the model scale tires was that the scaled tires were not deformable. The results show that the difference between two sets of tires is comparable in full scale and in quarter scale.

The increasing importance of electric mobility results into the need for optimizing all power train components to further reduce the energy consumption of the vehicle. The aim of this study is to predict the thermal behavior and the pressure losses in water jackets of electric machines by use of CFD. The heat loss of electric machines in passenger cars is sufficient to let its components reach critical temperatures. For this reason, the optimization of heat dissipation plays an important role. The goal of efficient heat dissipation is a high heat transfer coefficient. At the same time, the pressure loss should be low in order to reduce the required power of the pump. Flow simulations can help to evaluate different water jacket concepts in an early stage of development. In this work, the validation of flow simulations in water jackets is based on measurements of a simplified geometry with constant boundary conditions.

In the digital prototype development process of a new Mercedes-Benz, thermal protection is an important task that has to be fulfilled. In the early stages of development, numerical methods are used to detect thermal hotspots in order to protect temperature sensitive parts. These methods involve transient full Vehicle Thermal Management (VTM) simulations to predict dynamic vehicle heat-up during critical load cases. In order to simulate thermal control mechanisms, a coupled 1D to 3D thermal vehicle model is built in which the coolant and oil circuit of the engine, as well as the exhaust flow are captured in detail. When performing a transient 3D VTM analysis, the conduction and radiation phenomena are simulated using a transient structure model while the convective phenomena are co-simulated in a steady state fluid model. Both models are brought to interaction at predetermined points by an automatized coupling method.

In this paper the effect of aerodynamic modifications that influence the unsteady aerodynamic properties of a vehicle on the response of the closed loop system driver-vehicle under side wind conditions is investigated. In today's aerodynamic optimization the side wind sensitivity of a vehicle is determined from steady state values measured in the wind tunnel. There, the vehicle is rotated with respect to the wind tunnel flow to create an angle of attack. In this approach however, the gustiness that is inherent in natural wind is not reproduced. Further, unsteady forces and moments acting on the vehicle are not measured due to the limited dynamic response of the commonly used wind tunnel balances. Therefore, a new method is introduced, overcoming the shortcomings of the current steady state approach. The method consists of the reproduction of the properties of natural stochastic crosswind that are essential for the determination of the side wind sensitivity of a vehicle.

This paper describes a method to simulate underhood temperature distributions in passenger cars. A simplified engine compartment simulation test rig is used to perform measurements with well known boundary conditions to validate the simulation strategy. The measurement setup corresponds to idle without working fan. The aim of this setup is to validate cases with strong natural convection, e.g. thermal soaking. A coupled steady-state CFD run and thermal analysis is undertaken to simulate the temperature distribution in the test rig. Convective heat transfer coefficients and air temperatures are calculated in StarCD™. The radiative and conductive heat transfer is considered in a RadTherm™ analysis. The strong coupling of flow field and wall temperature in buoyancy driven flows requires an iterative process. Calculated temperatures are compared to measured results in order to validate the simulation method as far as possible. Some of the results are reported in this paper.

The manufacturers of passenger cars increasingly assign development and production of complete subsystems to the supplying industry. A brake system supplier has to give predictions about system quality and performance long time before the first prototypical system is built or even before the supplier gets the order for system development. Nowadays, the usage of computer-aided system design and simulation is essential for that task. This article presents a tool designed to support the development process. A special focus will be on how to define quality. A formal definition of quality is provided, illustrated and motivated by two examples.

In automobile development, wind tunnel measurements are used to optimize fuel consumption and the vehicle's road behavior. The classic measuring technique is based on a stationary vehicle set up in the wind tunnel with stationary wheels. Relative movement between vehicle and road surface is therefore ignored. In more recent studies, measurements have been taken with improved ground simulation. For example, a belt is used instead of the stationary wind tunnel floor and the car wheels rotate. Ground simulation using a belt and rotating wheels generally leads to a reduction in flow angularity at the front wheels, in the same way as blocking the cooling air flow, whereby, as a matter of fact, the aerodynamic drag is reduced. Analogous air flow angle correlations can be established for the effect of underfloor panels.

The present paper reveals the design concept as well as results of experimental investigations, which were conducted in the early design stage of the planned AUDI Aero-Acoustic Wind Tunnel. This low-noise open-jet facility, featuring a nozzle exit area of 11 m2 and a top speed of approximately 60 m/s, enables aerodynamic as well as acoustic testing of both, full-scale and model-scale ground vehicles. Ground simulation is provided by means of a moving-belt rig. The surrounding plenum is designed as a semi-anechoic chamber to simulate acoustic free-field conditions around the vehicle. Fan noise will be attenuated below the noise level of the open jet. The work reported herein, comprises 1/8-scale pilot-tunnel experiments of aerodynamic and acoustic configurations which were carried out at the University of Darmstadt.