Title: The influence of wheel-housing shape on vehicle aerodynamic performance

Authors: Satya P. Mavuri; Simon Watkins

Addresses: SAMME, RMIT Bundoora East Campus, Bundoora, Victoria 3073, Australia. ' SAMME, RMIT Bundoora East Campus, Bundoora, Victoria 3073, Australia

Abstract: Despite intense research into the flow around a road vehicle, the drag coefficient has plateaued at about 0.3 and further reductions will come from wheel associated areas. The wheel housings have had relatively little attention despite contributing significant disturbances to the airflow. A simple two wheeled body was developed to reproduce wheel effects of a typical passenger car. Benchmarking experiments were performed in a wind tunnel using a double-symmetry testing concept. CFD techniques were used for parametric study. A number of parameters were analysed and the flow structures indicate that wheel-housing shape has a significant influence on the vehicle aerodynamics.

Keywords: vehicle aerodynamics; drag coefficient; lift coefficient; wheel housing shape; wheel-well; wind tunnel; vehicle design; airflow; wheel housings; passenger cars; aerodynamic performance.

DOI: 10.1504/IJVD.2011.044726

International Journal of Vehicle Design, 2011 Vol.57 No.2/3, pp.275 - 291

Received: 06 Feb 2010
Accepted: 02 Sep 2010
Published online: 15 Apr 2015 *

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