Abstract
In automotive design, the study of the water thin layer over a car due to rain is becoming increasingly important: the challenge is to obtain a way to describe the behavior of the water over a vehicle in rainy conditions and its interactions with wipers and drainage systems, to determine potential failures of the vehicle design. In this paper two similar numeric procedures have been realized with the software STAR CCM+® to analyze the dynamic of water thin layer starting from the impingement of the rain on the car surface and taking into account even the motion of the wipers over the windshield. Moreover, the water that flows through the drainage systems is monitored to figure out if the water could produce a malfunction of components near them. In order to describe each status of the water, many multiphase models are used. These methodologies have been applied on a commercial vehicle model and the results have been examined and compared to each other. The analysis shows a better description of the reality for one of them, leading to the possibility of using it as a design tool in the automotive industry.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Allocco, M. (2018). Multiphase Simulations for Vehicle External Water Management. M. S. Thesis. Turin Polytechnic. Turin, Italy.
Aoki, M., Iwai, H., Nakagawa, K., Ishii, S. and Mizutani, K. (2016). Measurements of rainfall velocity and raindrop size distribution using coherent doppler lidar. J. Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology 33, 9, 1949–1966.
Buscariolo, F. F. and Delia Volpe, L. J. (2014). Water ingestion and pressure analysis of automotive vehicles using CFD. Blucher Engineering Proc. 1, 2, 142–149.
Buscariolo, F. F., Budavari, A., Mantovani, D., Almeida, E., Rossi, G., Bigarella, R. and Ramos, R. P. (2014). Multiphase water flow simulation of a vehicle's roof. Blucher Engineering Proc. 1, 2, 158–165.
Chandar, D. D. J., Boppana, V. B. L. and Kumar, V. (2018). A comparative study of different overset grid solvers between OpenFOAM, StarCCM and ansys-fluent. AIAA Aerospace Sciences Meeting, Kissimmee, Florida, USA.
Dasarathan, D., Jilesen, J., Croteau, D. and Ayala, R. (2016). CFD water management design for a passenger coach with correlation. SAE Paper No. 2016-01-8155.
Foucart, H. and Blain, E. (2005). Water-flow simulation on vehicle panels by taking into account the calculated aerodynamic field. SAE Paper No. 2005-01-3572.
Hucho, W. H. (1998). Aerodynamics of Road Vehicles: From Fluid Mechanics of Vehicle Engineering. 4th edn. SAE International. Warrendale, Pennsylvania, USA.
Jilesen, J., Alajbegovic, A. and Duncan, B. (2015). Soiling and rain simulation for ground transportation vehicles. 7th European-Japanese Two-Phase Flow Group Meeting, Zermatt, Switzerland.
Kenneth, J. K. and Longman, S. E. (1998). Automobile exterior water flow analysis using CFD and wind tunnel visualization. SAE Paper No. 980035.
Lombardi, G., Maganzi, M., Caldirola, L., Cannizzo, F. and Petrotta, G. (2006). The aerodynamic development of the Ferrari FXX. Proc. 6th MIRA Int. Vehicles Aerodynamic Conf., Warwick, UK.
Lombardi, G., Maganzi, M., Cannizzo, F. and Cardile, E. (2008). Optimization procedures in a car aerodynamic design: Examples of application with CFD. Proc. 7th MIRA Int. Vehicles Aerodynamic Conf., Warwick, UK.
Lombardi, G., Maganzi, M., Cannizzo, F. and Cardile, E. (2010). L'uso della CFD per l'ottimizzazione aerodinamica di un veicolo: Problemi e applicazioni. AUTOTECNICA, 7.
Profir, M. M. (2012). Automated Moving Mesh Techniques in CFD. Application to Fluid-structure Interactions and Rigid Motions Problems. CRS4 Collana di Seminari Interni, Number 20120411.
Schubert, S. and Rung, T. (2017). Challenges and applications of overset grid coupling strategies. Proc. 88th Annual Meeting of the Int. Association of Applied Mathematics and Mechanics (GAMM), Weimar, Germany.
Siemens (2017). User Guide STAR-CCM Version 12.02.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Lombardi, G., Ercoli, A., Maganzi, M. et al. Comparison of two Multiphase Procedures on a Commercial Vehicle in Rain Conditions. Int.J Automot. Technol. 20, 1123–1129 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12239-019-0105-9
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12239-019-0105-9