Title: Drag coefficient prediction analysis for heavy duty trucks

Authors: Dogan Gunes

Addresses: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Istanbul Technical University, Turkey

Abstract: In this paper application of a standard CFD code to analyse the flow and aerodynamic drag around heavy duty vehicles is elaborated by using the Sandia Ground Transportation System (GTS) model. It is assumed that all unsteady effects are taken care for by the RNG κ-ε turbulence model. Within this context, a methodology for an accurate prediction of the drag coefficient is proposed, where special emphasis is placed upon the grid resolution, results indicating the importance of the discretisation of the wake area.

Keywords: drag coefficient prediction; bluff body aerodynamics; heavy vehicles; mesh refinement effect; wake flow; aerodynamic drag; CFD; computational fluid dynamics; turbulence modelling; trucks; grid resolution.

DOI: 10.1504/PCFD.2007.015778

Progress in Computational Fluid Dynamics, An International Journal, 2007 Vol.7 No.8, pp.457 - 466

Published online: 14 Nov 2007 *

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