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Aerodynamic drag reduction by vertical splitter plates

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Abstract

The capacity of vertical splitter plates placed at the front or the rear of a simplified car geometry to reduce drag, with and without skew angle, is investigated for Reynolds numbers between 1.0 × 106 and 1.6 × 106. The geometry used is a simplified geometry to represent estate-type vehicles, for the rear section, and MPV-type vehicle. Drag reductions of nearly 28% were obtained for a zero skew angle with splitter plates placed at the front of models of MPV or utility vehicles. The results demonstrate the advantage of adapting the position and orientation of the splitter plates in the presence of a lateral wind. All these results confirm the advantage of this type of solution, and suggest that this expertise should be used in the automotive field to reduce consumption and improve dynamic stability of road vehicles.

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Abbreviations

L A :

Length of the Ahmed body

l A :

Rear window length

w A :

Width of the Ahmed body

H A :

Total height of the Ahmed body

h :

Height of the geometry front part

w :

Width of the geometry front part

Re :

Reynolds number based on the geometry length

\( \overline{\overline{{\tau_{\mu } }}} \) :

Viscous shear stress tensor

\( \overline{\overline{{\tau_{t} }}} \) :

Turbulent shear stress tensor

P io :

Farfield total pressure

P :

Static pressure

dσ :

Surface element

\( \vec{n} \) :

Normal vector unit

\( \vec{x} \) :

Vector unit in the longitudinal plane

\( \Upsigma \) :

Surface of the outlet boundaries around Ahmed body (\( \Upsigma = \Upsigma_{\text{L}} + S_{\text{e}} + S_{\text{s}} + S_{\text{c}} \))

\( \Upsigma_{\text{L}} \) :

Lateral surface

\( S_{\text{e}} \) :

Inlet section (engine compartment)

\( S_{\text{s}} \) :

Outlet section (engine compartment)

\( S_{\text{c}} \) :

Body surface

\( \vec{V}_{0} \) :

Upstream velocity vector

\( \vec{V} \) :

Local velocity vector

V x , V y , V z :

Velocity components

\( (\vec{x},\,\vec{y},\,\vec{z}) \) :

Vector unit system related to the model

S :

Transversal section immediately downstream of the bluff body

C p :

Static pressure coefficient

ρ :

Density

α:

Angle between the rear window and the upstream flow direction

β :

Skew angle

λ :

Orientation angle of the splitter plate related to the body

θ :

Angle between the splitter plate and the velocity V o

C d :

Aerodynamic drag coefficient

C dref :

Reference aerodynamic drag coefficient

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Research Division, Fluid Mechanics & Aerodynamics, Renault Group, 1, avenue du Golf (TCR AVA 058), 78288, Guyancourt, France

    Patrick Gilliéron

  2. Institut PRISME, ESA, Polytech’Orléans, 8 rue Léonard de Vinci, 45072, Orleans Cedex 2, France

    Azeddine Kourta

Authors
  1. Patrick Gilliéron
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  2. Azeddine Kourta
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Correspondence to Azeddine Kourta.

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Gilliéron, P., Kourta, A. Aerodynamic drag reduction by vertical splitter plates. Exp Fluids 48, 1–16 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00348-009-0705-7

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