Aerodynamic analysis of an isolated vehicle wheel

Increasing fuel prices force the manufacturers to look into all aspects of car aerodynamics including wheels, tyres and rims in order to minimize their drag. By diminishing the aerodynamic drag of vehicle the fuel consumption will decrease, while driving safety and comfort will improve. In order to...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of physics. Conference series 2014-01, Vol.530 (1), p.12064-8
Main Authors: Leśniewicz, P, Kulak, M, Karczewski, M
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Aerodynamic drag
Aerodynamics
Automotive bodies
Automotive wheels
Computer simulation
Crashworthiness
Drag
Driver behavior
Finite element method
Fuel consumption
Grounds
Local flow
Mathematical models
Moving walls
Numerical models
Physics
Rotating bodies
Rotation
Simulation
Vehicle safety
Vehicle wheels
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Summary:Increasing fuel prices force the manufacturers to look into all aspects of car aerodynamics including wheels, tyres and rims in order to minimize their drag. By diminishing the aerodynamic drag of vehicle the fuel consumption will decrease, while driving safety and comfort will improve. In order to properly illustrate the impact of a rotating wheel aerodynamics on the car body, precise analysis of an isolated wheel should be performed beforehand. In order to represent wheel rotation in contact with the ground, presented CFD simulations included Moving Wall boundary as well as Multiple Reference Frame should be performed. Sliding mesh approach is favoured but too costly at the moment. Global and local flow quantities obtained during simulations were compared to an experiment in order to assess the validity of the numerical model. Results of investigation illustrates dependency between type of simulation and coefficients (drag and lift). MRF approach proved to be a better solution giving result closer to experiment. Investigation of the model with contact area between the wheel and the ground helps to illustrate the impact of rotating wheel aerodynamics on the car body.
ISSN:1742-6596
1742-6588
1742-6596
DOI:10.1088/1742-6596/530/1/012064