Road vehicles such as SUVs or pickup trucks are described as bluff bodies. When the air flow passes over the road vehicles the flow will separate at the rear of the vehicle, forming a large low pressure turbulent wake region behind the vehicle. The formed pressure drag posts resistance on the road vehicles and thus increases the work done by the engine to propel the vehicle. The purpose of this paper is to present the development and design of drag reducing devices for SUVs by studying the SUV’s aerodynamics. Numerical simulations using commercial software package — FLUENT were performed in order to study the aerodynamics behind the vehicles. A computer model of the Ahmed Vehicle Model was selected as a benchmark test. This Ahmed Model is a simple geometric body that retains major flow features where most part of the drag is concentrated. Seven different spoiler designs for the SUV have been studied. Their results for the SUV’s aerodynamics have been presented through velocity vectors, pressure contours, and aerodynamic lift and drag plots. One spoiler design was found to be able to reduce aerodynamic drag and others were found to be able to reduce the lift.
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ASME 2008 International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition
October 31–November 6, 2008
Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Conference Sponsors:
- ASME
ISBN:
978-0-7918-4878-4
PROCEEDINGS PAPER
Drag Reduction on SUVs and Trucks by Wake Control
Amarddin Z. Maazouddin,
Amarddin Z. Maazouddin
California State University - Sacramento, Sacramento, CA
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Dongmei Zhou
Dongmei Zhou
California State University - Sacramento, Sacramento, CA
Search for other works by this author on:
Amarddin Z. Maazouddin
California State University - Sacramento, Sacramento, CA
Dongmei Zhou
California State University - Sacramento, Sacramento, CA
Paper No:
IMECE2008-68730, pp. 381-392; 12 pages
Published Online:
August 26, 2009
Citation
Maazouddin, AZ, & Zhou, D. "Drag Reduction on SUVs and Trucks by Wake Control." Proceedings of the ASME 2008 International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition. Volume 17: Transportation Systems. Boston, Massachusetts, USA. October 31–November 6, 2008. pp. 381-392. ASME. https://doi.org/10.1115/IMECE2008-68730
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