The research on the external aerodynamics of ground vehicles can nowadays be related to sustainable development strategies, confirmed by the worldwide CO2 regulation target. Automotive manufacturers estimate that a drag reduction of 30% contributes to 10g/km of CO2 reduction.
However, this drag reduction should be obtained without constraints on the design, the safety, comfort and habitability of the passengers.
Thus, it is interesting to find flow control solutions, which will remove or remote recirculation zones due to separation edges with appropriate control techniques. In automotive sales, the SUV, 4x4 and compact cars represent a large part of the market share and the study of control approaches for this geometry is practically useful.
In this work, appropriate control techniques are designed to decrease the drag forces around a reduced scale SUV car benchmark called POSUV. The control techniques are based on the DMD (Dynamic Mode Decomposition) algorithms generating an optimized drag reduction procedure. It involves independent transient inflow boundary conditions for flow control actuation in the vicinity of the separation zones and time resolved pressure sensor output signals on the rear end surface of the mockup. This study, that exploits dominant flow features behind the tailgate and the rear bumper, is performed using Large Eddy Simulations on a sufficient run time scale, in order to minimize a cost function dealing with the time and space average pressure coefficient. The resulting dynamic modal decomposition obtained by these LES simulations and by wind tunnel measurements has been compared for the reference case, in order to select the most appropriate run time scale. Analysis of the numerical results shows a significant pressure increase on the tailgate, for independent flow control frequencies. Similar decomposition performed in the wake with and without numerical flow control help understanding the flow modifications in the detachment zones.
