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Automotive Aerodynamics
This study concerns about the airflow around the vehicle body.
At a speed of about 70km/hr, aerodynamic drag exceeds to 50% of total resistance to motion
& above 100km/hr it is the most important factor.
Important of aerodynamic study:
To reduce drag force & achieve maximum speed and acceleration for the same power output.
If drag force is reduced, fuel consumption of the vehicle can be reduced to the maximum
35% of fuel cost could be reduced by proper stream timing.
Good aerodynamic design, gives better appearance and styling.
By reducing the various forces and moments, good stability and safety can be achieved.
This study helps to provide proper ventilation system.
Helps to understand the dirt flow and exhaust gas flow patterns.
With proper aerodynamic design, aerodynamic noise could be reduced, which results in quite
running of the vehicle.
Aerodynamic drag:
This includes Form drag
- 57%
Lift drag
- 8%
Surface drag
- 10%
Interference drag
- 15%
- 10%
Form drag:
Body shape that minimize positive aerodynamic force and the first and minimize negative
aerodynamic force i.e. suction on the rear exhibit low form drag small cars, constantly retard and last
back bodies have reduced form drag.
Lift drag
A car body provides accelerated air flow and the corresponding low pressure on its upper
surface. Especially in leading edge of head wind shield and leading edge of roof. This
produces aerodynamic lift.
Air flow and pressure distribution around a car:
Air velocity is increased over the roof pressure drop suction zone.
At the base of the windscreen stream have separates - +ve pressure due to low velocity.
At the stagnation point our moves around the nose speeds up +ve pressure. Lift is not a
serious problem at normal speed. If affect stability and braking performance.
Surface drag:
The viscosity of air produces at thin layer (boundary) next to vehicle body.
The drag at small surface imperfections with this layer is considered as surface drag.
Body smoothness should be the order of 0.5 to 1.0 microns.
Interference drag:
The flows over many exterior components interact with the flow over basic body shape.
This leads to interference drag.
Components hood arrangement, wind shield wipers, radio aerial, rear view mirror, no
plate, door handles, rain gutters, exposed door hinges and roof racks.
Explanations
Both lift & pitching moment have undesirable effect
Lift tend to reduce pressure between wheels and ground
Loss of steering on the front wheel
Loss of traction on the rear axle
Pitching moment negative nose down
Rear axle lift off the ground
Further less of traction
Fig 1 Effect of cross wind is shown.
Lift coefficient increase parable with wind angle up to two and three times its value when
there is no side wind.
Optimization
Add on device
AB into for low drag
Optimization
Step by step modification of the of the body detail obtain a better relationship bet drag &
geometric parameter of the part. Modification is carried out up to saturation point.
Boat Tailing can be incorporated tapering the side inward from front to rear slopping the
roof towards the rear end.
OPTIMIZATION TECHNIQUE
Modification of fore body:
Fig shows on example for a front end that was developed purely empirically the initial shape
in designed fore body and illustrated in each case for comparison. The bar graph shows the %
change in drag in comparison with the initial shape. A small correction of the shape on the front edge
above reduced the drag by 6%. The front end shapes 3, 4 & 5 represent equal variants; they provide
an important of 10% shapes 6 & 7 already show significant stylistic deviation from the initial shape.
They are intended to show the maximum improvement possible. In the present example a drag
reduction of 14% was achieved with the particular detail
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As the wind shield becomes flatter the aerodynamic drag decrease. This has been confirmed by
several anthers. Fig 2 & fig 3 shows the measurement made on research automobiles. The
measurement values from the development of Audi 100III are included in fig4 from all these. It can
be concluded that the direct influence of wind shield inclination on drag is only moderate.
Wind shield inclination angle of more than 60 are not practical because of light diffusion. I
addition large highly inclined windshield lead to increased solar heating passenger compartment.
MODIFICATION OF ROOF:
Roofs are designed with a convex shape to ensure sufficient rigidity. For stylistic reasons an
attempt is made to keep the convexity as small as possible. If this convexity is increased the drag
coefficient can be reduced fig. 5 shows this for a medium sized Notch back car. If the convex shape
is designed so that the frontal area A of the vehicle increases which inform increases the aerodynamic
drag. On the other hand; the original roof height is kept constant the front and rear windows must be
curved into the roof contour to eliminate obstruction of the roof. This leads to expensive windows
but results in lower drag. The measurements plated in fig 6 show the same tendency for a fast back
configuration near, the chord length of the roof are was used as a reference variable for the curvature
instead the height h as in fig.
With a long diffuser, a notable reduction in the drag can be achieved with a very small angle .
However the effect is only assured with a smooth underside.
Measurements made on the unicorn research automobile gave similar results.
Here too the longer diffuser has the greater effect.
Also note is that the lift at the rear axle is reduced by the diffuser.
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