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The management of surface water flows driven from the wind screen by the action of wipers and aerodynamic shear is a growing challenge for automotive manufacturers. Pressure to remove traditional vehicle features, such as A-Pillar steps for aesthetic, aeroacoustic and aerodynamic reasons increases the likelihood that surface water may be convected over the A-Pillar and onto the front side glass where it can compromise drivers’ vision. The ability to predict where and under which conditions the A-Pillar will be breached is important for making correct design decisions. The use of numerical simulation in this context is desirable, as experimental testing relies on the use of aerodynamics test properties which will not be fully representative, or late-stage prototypes, making it difficult and costly to correct issues. This paper provides an update on the ability of simulation to predict A-Pillar overflow, comparing physical and numerical results for a test vehicle.

A vehicle on the road encounters an unsteady flow due to turbulence in the natural wind, the unsteady wakes from other vehicles and as a result of traversing through the stationary wakes of road side obstacles. There is increasing concern about potential differences in aerodynamic behaviour measured in steady flow wind tunnel conditions and that which occurs for vehicles on the road. It is possible to introduce turbulence into the wind tunnel environment (e.g. by developing active turbulence generators) but on-road turbulence is wide ranging in terms of both its intensity and frequency and it would be beneficial to better understand what aspects of the turbulence are of greatest importance to the aerodynamic performance of vehicles. There has been significant recent work on the characterisation of turbulent airflow relevant to road vehicles. The simulation of this time-varying airflow is now becoming possible in wind tunnels and in CFD.

Charge air temperature needs to be kept low for optimum engine operation. If charge air temperature is too high, engine performance reduction strategies are invoked to protect engines by limiting torque available to drivers. A 1D-3D coupling simulation methodology is developed to accurately predict internal air temperature after charge air cooler (CAC) during a racing drive cycle. The 3D flow simulation is used to characterize external air flow before CAC in steady-state cases. Then, interpolated 3D simulation results between steady operating points are used as transient external air boundary conditions in front of CAC in a 1D system model. 3D flow simulation is also used to predict internal flow rate ratio between CAC tubes. Finally, an 1D system model is used to predict time-trace of charge air temperature at CAC internal outlet during the racing drive cycle. The simulation results show that prediction errors are within 5 degrees for charge air temperature at internal outlets.

Windscreen wipers are an integral component of the windscreen cleaning systems of most vehicles, trains, cars, trucks, boats and some planes. Wipers are used to clear rain, snow, and dirt from the windscreen pushing the water from the wiped surface. Under certain conditions however, water which has been driven to the edge of the windscreen by the wiper can be drawn back into the driver’s field of view by aerodynamic forces introduced by the wiper motion. This is wiper drawback, an undesirable phenomenon as the water which is drawn back on to the windscreen can reduce driver’s vision and makes the wiper less effective. The phenomena of wiper drawback can be tested for in climatic tunnels using sprayer systems to wet the windscreen. However, these tests require a bespoke test property or prototype vehicle, which means that the tests are done fairly late in the development of the vehicle.

Water accumulating on a vehicle's wind screen, driven over the A-pillar by a combination of aerodynamic forces and the action of the windscreen wipers, can be a significant impediment to driver vision. Surface water film, or streams, persisting in key vision areas of the side glass can impair the drivers' ability to see clearly through to the door mirror, and laterally onto junctions. Common countermeasures include: water management channels and hydrophobic glass coatings. Water management channels have both design and wind noise implications. Hydrophobic coatings entail significant cost. In order to manage this design optimisation issue a water film and wiper effect model has been developed in collaboration with Jaguar Land Rover, extending the capabilities of the PowerFLOW CFD software. This is complimented by a wind-tunnel based test method for development and validation. The paper presents the progress made to date.

This paper describes the methodology used to design and perform a CFD analysis of a Chevrolet Impala SS Funny Car body. This body was designed for the purpose of making it available for teams to race it in the National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) drag racing series beginning with the 2007 race season. Several challenges were presented in this project: (1) This was the first time a General Motors drag racing body for use in professional classes (Funny Car or otherwise) was ever designed in CAD. (2) The body was originally designed as a 2007 Chevrolet Monte Carlo. After the tooling was completed, changes in Chevrolet’s product lineup required that the body be changed to a 2007 Impala SS. (3) Budget constraints precluded CFD analysis until after the bodies were already being manufactured. There were several teams that raced the new body during the 2007 race season. One of these teams won the Funny Car Driver’s Championship.

Side window clarity and its effect on side mirror visibility plays a major role in driver comfort. Driving in inclement weather conditions such as rain can be stressful, and having optimal visibility under these conditions is ideal. However, extreme conditions can overwhelm exterior water management devices, resulting in rivulets of water flowing over the a-pillar and onto the vehicle’s side glass. Once on the side glass, these rivulets and the pooling of water they feed, can significantly impair the driver’s ability to see the side mirror and to see outwardly when in situations such as changing lanes. Designing exterior water management features of a vehicle is a challenging exercise, as traditionally, physical testing methods first require a full-scale vehicle for evaluations to be possible. Additionally, common water management devices such as grooves and channels often have undesirable aesthetic, drag, and wind noise implications.

For the automotive industry, the quality and level of the wind noise contribution has a growing importance and therefore should be addressed as early as possible in the development process. Each component of the vehicle is designed to meet its individual noise target to ensure the wind noise passenger comfort level inside the vehicle is met. Sunroof broadband noise is generated by the turbulent flow developed over the roof opening. A strong shear layer and vortices impacting on the trailing edge of the sunroof are typical mechanisms related to the noise production. Sunroof designs are tested to meet broadband noise targets. Experimentally testing designs and making changes to meet these design targets typically involves high cost prototypes, expensive wind tunnel sessions and potentially late design changes.

A computational analysis of underbody windnoise sources on a production automobile at 180 km/h free stream air speed and 0° yaw is presented. Two different underbody geometry configurations were considered for this study. The numerical results have been obtained using the commercial software PowerFLOW. The simulation kernel of this software is based on the numerical scheme known as the Lattice-Boltzmann Method (LBM), combined with a two-equation RNG turbulence model. This scheme accurately captures time-dependent aerodynamic behavior of turbulent flows over complex detailed geometries, including the pressure fluctuations causing wind noise. Comparison of pressure fluctuations levels mapped on a fluid plane below the underbody shows very good correlation between experiment and simulation. Detailed flow analysis was done for both configurations to obtain insight into the transient nature of the flow field in the underbody region.

Aerodynamic simulations of a 1:8-scale simplified tractor-trailer, designated as the Generic Conventional Model (GCM), were conducted using a Lattice-Boltzmann based solver. Comparisons were made to experimental measurements from the NASA Ames 12-Foot Pressure Wind Tunnel, including drag coefficients as a function of yaw, static and transient surface pressures, and three-component particle image velocimetry. The baseline model configuration was tested at yaw angles from 0 to 12 degrees, allowing the calculation of the wind-averaged drag coefficient. Results demonstrated that the simulation predicted body-axis drag within experimental uncertainty and also resolved the correct pressure distribution and flow structure in the separated flow regions including the tractor-trailer gap and trailer wake regions. The comparison of the experimental transient pressure spectra showed good agreement with the simulation results, both in magnitude and identification of dominant spectral peaks.

The ultimate goal for vehicle aerodynamicists is to develop vehicles that perform well on the road under real-world conditions. One of the most important metrics to evaluate vehicle performance is the drag coefficient. However, vehicle development today is performed mostly under controlled settings using wind tunnels and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) with artificially uniform upstream conditions, neglecting real-world effects due to road turbulence from wind and other vehicles. Thus, the drag coefficients computed with these methods might not be representative of the real performance of the car on the road. This might ultimately lead engineers to develop design solutions and aerodynamic devices which, while performing well in idealized conditions, do not perform well on the road. For this reason, it is important to assess the vehicle’s drag as seen in real-world environments. An effort in this direction is represented by using the wind-averaged drag.

This paper presents an approach to numerically simulate greenhouse windnoise. The term “greenhouse windnoise” here describes the sound transferred to the interior through the glass panels of a series vehicle. Different panels, e.g. the windshield or sideglass, are contributing to the overall noise level. Attached parts as mirrors or wipers are affecting the flow around the vehicle and thus the pressure fluctuations which are acting as loads onto the panels. Especially the wiper influence and the effect of different wiper positions onto the windshield contribution is examined and set in context with the overall noise levels and other contributors. In addition, the effect of different flow yaw angles on the windnoise level in general and the wiper contributions in particular are demonstrated. As computational aeroacoustics requires accurate, highly resolved simulation of transient and compressible flow, a Lattice-Boltzmann approach is used.