21-07-2014, 11:48 AM
Automotive Aerodynamics
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Introduction:
The word aerodynamics came from the Greek words aer (air) and dynamics. So aerodynamics is a branch of dynamics that concerns with the study of motion of air, particularly when it interacts with a solid object (airplane wing). When any automotive vehicle moves with high speed, the air opposes its motion with a very much extent and a great amount of power is lost in opposing this force. So, automotive aerodynamics is the study of the aerodynamics of road vehicles. Its main goals are reducing drag and wind noise, minimizing the noise emission, and preventing undesired lift forces and other causes of aerodynamics instability at higher speeds.
Objectives: Objectives of improvement of flow past vehicle bodies are:
• Reduction of fuel consumption.
• More favourable comfort conditions (mud deposition on body, noise reduction, ventilating and cooling of passenger compartment)
• Improvements of driving characteristics (stability, handling, traffic safety)
Vehicle Aerodynamics includes three interacting flow fields:
• Flow past vehicle body
• Flow past vehicle components (wheels, heat exchanger, brakes, windshield)
• Flow in passenger compartment
Applications: There are many fields where we use aerodynamics concepts, such as:
• Airplane design
• Propeller design
• Design of rockets or jet engines
• Planetary entry vehicles
• Global atmosphere modelling
• Large building making
Fundamental Quantities: Fundamental Quantities used in aerodynamics are:
Conclusion:
Optimisation of vehicle bodies results in:
• Considerable reduction of fuel consumption
• Improvement of comfort characteristics and
• More favourable driving characteristics of ground vehicles.
• In optimisation besides wind tunnel investigations numerical simulation of flow field has become more and more important