Title: Wind tunnel tests and aerodynamic numerical simulations of car opening windows

Authors: Ying-Chao Zhang; Jing Zhao; Jie Li; Zhe Zhang

Addresses: State Key Laboratory of Automotive Simulation and Control, Jilin University, Changchun Jilin Province 130022, China. ' College of Automotive Engineering, Jilin University, Changchun Jilin Province 130022, China. ' State Key Laboratory of Automotive Simulation and Control, Jilin University, Changchun Jilin Province 130022, China. ' State Key Laboratory of Automotive Simulation and Control, Jilin University, Changchun Jilin Province 130022, China

Abstract: This paper describes research on the aerodynamic drag when a car runs on an urban road with different window opening levels, both in wind tunnel test and aerodynamic numerical simulation (CFD). The results obtained with the two methods were compared and the reasons for the drag coefficients increased were found out. Some suggestions about how to drive a car at a lower speed in summer were provided: the fuel consumption of a car running with open windows is less than that of a car running with the air conditioner working when the car runs at lower speed (under 90 km/h).

Keywords: wind tunnel testing; CFD; computational fluid dynamics; vehicle aerodynamics; open windows; fuel consumption; aerodynamic drag; urban roads; vehicle air conditioning; vehicle speeds; open car windows.

DOI: 10.1504/IJVD.2012.045923

International Journal of Vehicle Design, 2012 Vol.58 No.1, pp.62 - 78

Received: 01 Nov 2009
Accepted: 07 Jan 2011
Published online: 23 Apr 2013 *

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