Aerodynamik von Kraftfahrzeuge - Automobile Aerodynamics

The external flow around road vehicles has influence on cooling, road performance, fuel consumption, comfort, driving dynamics, and the sight at bad weather conditions. In the framework of the cooperation, the aerodynamics of the complete vehicle is investigated by means of computational fluid dynamics. It is the aim of the project to develop a stable process enabling the calculation of characteristic aerodynamic quantities (force and moment coefficients) of a vehicle as an integral part of design with high precision. Based on existing and well documented reference cases or benchmarks, the best suitable tool, as well as the appropriate method (meshing strategy, solution algorithm etc.), is identified. Attention is mainly focused on the temporal and spatial discretization of the calculation domain, as well as on the choice of turbulence and near-wall models. In a further step, this method will be applied to an actual vehicle, and the calculation results will be validated by means of wind tunnel tests.