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Correct simulations of rotating wheels are essential for accurate aerodynamic investigations of passenger vehicles. Therefore, modern automotive wind tunnels are equipped with five-belt moving ground systems with wheel drive units (WDUs) connected to the underfloor balance. The pressure distribution on the exposed areas of the WDU belts results in undesired lift forces being measured which must be considered to obtain accurate lift values for the vehicle. This work investigates the parasitic WDU lift for various configurations of a crossover SUV using numerical simulations that have been correlated to wind tunnel data. Several parameters were considered in the investigation, such as WDU size, WDU placement, tyre variants and vehicle configurations. The results show that the parasitic lift is more sensitive to the width than the length of the WDU. However, the belt length is also important to consider, especially if the wheel cannot be placed centred.

With progressing electrification of automotive powertrains and demands to meet increasingly stringent emission regulations, a combination of an electric motor and downsized turbocharged spark-ignited engine has been recognized as a viable solution. The SI engine must be optimized, and preferentially downsized, to reduce tailpipe CO2 and other emissions. However, drives to increase BMEP (Brake Mean Effective Pressure) and compression ratio/thermal efficiency increase propensities of knocking (auto-ignition of residual unburnt charge before the propagating flame reaches it) in downsized engines. Currently, knock is mitigated by retarding the ignition timing, but this has several limitations. Another option identified in the last decade (following trials of similar technology in aircraft combustion engines) is water injection, which suppresses knocking largely by reducing local in-cylinder mixture temperatures due to its latent heat of vaporization.

The need for a more complete understanding of the flow behavior in aerodynamic wind tunnels has increased as they have become vital tools not only for vehicle development, but also for vehicle certification. One important aspect of the behavior is the empty test section flow, which in a conventional tunnel should be as uniform as possible. In order to assess the uniformity and ensure consistent behavior over time, accurate measurements need to be performed regularly. Furthermore, the uncertainties and errors of the measurements need to be minimized in order to resolve small non-uniformities. In this work, the quantification of the measurement uncertainties from the full measurement chain of the new flow uniformity measurement rig for the Volvo Cars aerodynamic wind tunnel is presented. The simulation based method used to account for flow interference of the probe mount is also discussed.

In light of the drive for energy efficiency and low CO2 emissions, extensive research is performed to reduce vehicle aerodynamic drag. The wheels are relatively shielded from the main flow compared to the exterior of the passenger car; however, they are typically responsible for around 25% of the overall vehicle drag. This contribution is large as the wheels and tyres protrude into the flow and change the flow structure around the vehicle underbody. Given that the tyre is the first part of the wheel to get in contact with the oncoming flow, its shape and features have a significant impact on the flow pattern that develops. This study aims at identifying the general effects of two main tyre features, the longitudinal rain grooves and lateral pattern grooves, using both Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) and wind tunnel tests. This is performed by cutting generic representations of these details into identical slick tyres.

Due to stricter emission regulations and more environmental awareness, the powertrain systems are moving toward higher fuel efficiency and lower emissions. In response to these pressing needs, new technologies have been designed and implemented by manufacturers. As a result of increasing complexity of the powertrain systems, their control and optimization become more and more challenging. Virtual powertrain calibration, also known as model-based calibration, has been introduced to transfer a part of test bench testing into a virtual environment, and hence considerably reduce time and cost of product development process while increasing the product quality. Nevertheless, virtual calibration has not yet reached its full potential in industrial applications. Volvo Penta has recently developed a virtual test cell named VIRTEC, which is used in an ongoing pilot project to meet the Stage V emission standards.

The structure and evolution of cavitation in a transparent scaled-up diesel nozzle having a hole perpendicular to the nozzle axis has been investigated using high-speed motion pictures, flash photography and stroboscopic visualization. Observations revealed that, at the inception stage, cavitation bubbles are dominantly seen in the vortices at the boundary layer shear flow and outside the separation zone. Cavitation bubbles grow intensively in the shear layer and develop into cloud-like coherent structures when viewed from the side of the nozzle. Shedding of the coherent cloud cavitation was observed. When the flow was increased further the cloud like cavitation bubbles developed into a large-scale coherent structure extending downstream of the hole. Under this condition the cavitation starts as a mainly glassy sheet at the entrance of the hole. Until this stage the spray appeared to be symmetric.

In the 1955 Le Mans race the worst crash in motor racing history occurred and this accident would change the face of motor racing for decades. After the crash numerous investigations on the disaster were performed, and fifty years after some interesting books were launched on the subject. However, a number of key questions remain unsolved; and one open area is the influence of aerodynamics on the scenario, since the Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR involved in the crash was equipped with an air-brake and its influence on the accident is basically unknown. This work may be considered as a first attempt to establish CFD as a tool to aid in resolving aerodynamic aspects in motor sport accidents and in the present paper, CFD has been used to investigate the aerodynamics and estimate the drag and lift coefficients of the Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR used in the Le Mans race of 1955.

Approximately 25 % of a passenger vehicle’s aerodynamic drag comes directly or indirectly from its wheels, indicating that the rim geometry is highly relevant for increasing the vehicle’s overall energy efficiency. An extensive experimental study is presented where a parametric model of the rim design was developed, and statistical methods were employed to isolate the aerodynamic effects of certain geometric rim parameters. In addition to wind tunnel force measurements, this study employed the flowfield measurement techniques of wake surveys, wheelhouse pressure measurements, and base pressure measurements to investigate and explain the most important parameters’ effects on the flowfield. In addition, a numerical model of the vehicle with various rim geometries was developed and used to further elucidate the effects of certain geometric parameters on the flow field.

Bushing elasticity is one of the most important compliance factors that significantly influence driving behavior. The deformations of the bushings change the wheel orientations under external forces. Another important factor of bushing compliance is to provide a comfortable driving experience by isolating the vibrations from road irregularities. However, the driving comfort and driving dynamics are often in conflict and need to be balanced in terms of bushing compliance design. Specifically, lateral force steer and brake force steer are closely related to safety and stability and comprises must be minimized. The sensitivity analysis helps engineers to understand the critical bushing for certain compliance attributes, but optimal balancing is complicated to understand. The combination of individual bushing stiffness must be carefully set to achieve an acceptable level of all the attributes.

Flow visualization techniques are widely used in aerodynamics to investigate the surface trace pattern. In this experimental investigation, the surface flow pattern over the rear end of a full-scale passenger car is studied using tufts. The movement of the tufts is recorded with a DSLR still camera, which continuously takes pictures. A novel and efficient tuft image processing algorithm has been developed to extract the tuft orientations in each image. This allows the extraction of the mean tuft angle and other such statistics. From the extracted tuft angles, streamline plots are created to identify points of interest, such as saddle points as well as separation and reattachment lines. Furthermore, the information about the tuft orientation in each time step allows studying steady and unsteady flow phenomena. Hence, the tuft image processing algorithm provides more detailed information about the surface flow than the traditional tuft method.

The work investigates the integration between tools for analysis and simulation of cooling systems at Volvo Group Trucks Technology. At the same time it is a consequent step in evaluating GT-SUITE for the purposes of analysis and simulation of such systems. The focus is on 1D simulation tools, which are generally preferred in the context of transient simulations of engine and power train installation systems. The Cooling Analysis and Simulations group at Volvo Group Trucks Technology use a variety of 1D simulation tools for analysis of cooling performance. Volvo Power Train, on the other hand, use among others GT-SUITE for engine simulations. It is expected to improve the quality of the simulation, (i.e the accuracy of the results) and improve system integration by using one tool for both areas of simulation. This work delivers two transient models of FH 13L cooling system integrated with a predictive model of the engine and a detailed model of the main coolant circuit.

This paper presented a part of results from an ongoing project for pedestrian protection, which is carried out at Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden. A validated pedestrian mathematical model was used in this study to simulate vehicle-pedestrian impacts. A large number of simulations have been carried out with various parameters. The injury-related parameters concerning head, chest, pelvis and lower extremities were calculated to evaluate the effect of impact speed and vehicle front structure on the risk of pedestrian injuries. The effect of following vehicle parameters was studied: stiffness of bumper, hood edge, hood top, windscreen frame, and shape of vehicle front structures. A parameter study was conducted by modelling vehicle-pedestrian impacts with various sizes of cars, mini vans, and light trucks. This choice represents the trends of new vehicle fleet and their frequency of involvement in real world accidents.

In order to meet future emission regulations, various new combustion concepts are being developed, several of which incorporate advanced diesel injection strategies, e.g. multiple injections, offering attractive potential benefits. In this study the effects of split injections on soot evolution in diesel flames were investigated in a series of flame experiments performed using a high pressure, high temperature (HP/HT) spray chamber and laser-induced incandescence apparatus to measure soot volume fractions. The focus was on split injections with varied dwell times preceded by a short pilot. The results, which were analyzed and compared to results from engine tests, show that net soot production can be decreased by applying an appropriate split injection strategy.

We describe experiments and numerical modeling of snow surface contamination on two simplified automotive bluff bodies: The Ahmed body and a wedge. The purpose was twofold: 1) To obtain well defined experimental results of snow contamination on simple geometries; 2) To propose a numerical modeling approach for snow contamination. The experiments were performed in a climatic wind tunnel using a snow cannon at −15 °C and the results show that the snow accumulation depends on the aerodynamics of the studied bluff bodies. Snow accumulates on surfaces in proximity to the aerodynamic wakes of the bodies and characteristic snow patterns are obtained on side surfaces. The numerical modeling approach consisted of an aerodynamic setup coupled with Lagrangian particle tracking. Particles were determined to adhere or rebound depending on an adhesion model combined with a resuspension criterion.

Simulations of a Direct Injection Spark Ignition (DISI) engine have been performed for both early injection with homogeneous charge combustion and for late injection with stratified charge combustion. The purpose has been to study flow characteristics, fuel/air mixing, combustion, and NOx and soot formation. Focus is put on the combustion modeling. Two different full load cases with early injection are simulated, 2000 rpm and 6000 rpm. One load point with late injection is simulated, 2000 rpm and 2.8 bar net MEP. Three different injection timings are simulated at the low load point: 77, 82, and 87 CAD bTDC. The spray simulations are tuned to match measured spray penetrations and droplet size distributions at both atmospheric and elevated pressure. Boundary conditions for the engine simulations are taken from 1-D gas exchange simulations that are tuned to match engine tests.

In this paper, the turbulent flow induced by a production side-view mirror assembled on a full-scale production truck is simulated using a compressible k-ω SST detached eddy simulation (DES) approach -- the improved delayed DES (IDDES). The truck configuration consists of a compartment and a trailer. Due to the large size and geometric complexity of the configuration, some simplifications are applied to the simulation. A purpose of this work is to investigate whether the simplifications are suitable to obtain the reasonable properties of the flow near the side-view mirror. Another objective is to study the aerodynamic performances of the mirror. The configuration is simplified regarding two treatments. The first treatment is to retain the key exterior components of the truck body while removing the small gaps and structures. Furthermore, the trailer is shaped in an apex-truncated square pyramid.

This paper reports the numerical studies of self-ignition and early combustion process of n-heptane sprays under various diluted air conditions. The numerical simulations employ a detailed chemistry approach, coupled directly with the computational fluid dynamics (CFD). A “subgrid” Partially Stirred Reactor (PaSR) model has been developed to account for the turbulence-chemistry-interaction. This model has been implemented into the KIVA3V CFD code. A detailed chemical mechanism of reduced size (65 species and 273 elementary reactions) for the n-heptane fuel has been derived and applied to the simulations of spray combustion. The studies focus on sprays injected into a high-pressure constant-volume chamber. Firstly, the validation of the current numerical model has been carried out for the case in which the injection and initial conditions are similar to those used in the “classical” Aachen experiments (50bar and 800K).

Soot formation and oxidation are complex and competing processes during diesel combustion. The balance between the two processes and their history determines engine-out soot values. Besides the efforts to lower soot formation with measures to influence the flame lift-off distance for example or to use HCCI-combustion, enhancement of late soot oxidation is of equal importance for low-λ diffusion-controlled low emissions combustion with EGR. The purpose of this study is to investigate soot oxidation in a heavy duty diesel engine by statistical analysis of engine data and in-cylinder endoscopic high speed photography together with CFD simulations with a main focus on large scale in-cylinder gas motion. Results from CFD simulations using a detailed soot model were used to reveal details about the soot oxidation.

The automotive trends of vehicles with lower aerodynamic drag and more powerful drivetrains have caused increasing concern regarding stability issues at high speeds, since more streamlined bodies show greater sensitivity to crosswinds. This is especially pronounced for high vehicles, such as sports utility vehicles. Besides, the competitiveness in the automotive industry requires faster development times and, thus, a need to evaluate the high speed stability performance in an early design phase, preferable using simulation tools. The usefulness of these simulation tools partly relies on realistic boundary conditions for the wind and quantitative measures for assessing stability without the subjective evaluation of experienced drivers. This study employs an on-road experimental measurements setup to define relevant wind conditions and to find an objective methodology to evaluate high speed stability.

This paper describes results from fault injection experiments using heavy ions in the time-triggered communication protocol for safety critical distributed systems (TTP/C, C1 implementation). The observed results show that arbitrary faults in one erroneous node could cause inconsistencies in the cluster and thus jeopardize correctly working nodes and the whole communication system. The described inconsistencies resulted from either asymmetric value faults or slightly out of specification timing faults. This system behavior can be partly explained by too strict constraints on the fault handling algorithms using the membership agreement protocol.