Reduction in the aerodynamic drag around a generic vehicle by using a non-smooth surface

Author(s):  
Yiping Wang ◽  
Cheng Wu ◽  
Gangfeng Tan ◽  
Yadong Deng

Numerical investigations are carried out to investigate the reduction in the aerodynamic drag of a vehicle by employing a dimpled non-smooth surface. The computational scheme was validated by the experimental data reported in literature. The mechanism and the effect of the dimpled non-smooth surface on the drag reduction were revealed by analysing the flow field structure of the wake. In order to maximize the drag reduction performance of the dimpled non-smooth surface, an aerodynamic optimization method based on a Kriging surrogate model was employed to design the dimpled non-smooth surface. Four structure parameters were selected as the design variables, and a 16-level design-of-experiments method based on orthogonal arrays was used to analyse the sensitivities and the influences of the variables on the drag coefficient; a surrogate model was constructed from these. Then a multi-island genetic algorithm was employed to obtain the optimal solution for the surrogate model. Finally, the surrogate model and the simulation results showed that the optimal combination of design variables can reduce the aerodynamic drag coefficient by 5.20%.

Author(s):  
Xu Gong ◽  
Zhengqi Gu ◽  
Zhenlei Li

A surrogate model-based aerodynamic shape optimization method applied to the wind deflector of a tractor-trailer is presented in this paper. The aerodynamic drag coefficient of the tractor-trailer with and without the wind deflector subjected to crosswinds is analyzed. The numerical results show that the wind deflector can decrease drag coefficient. Four parameters are used to describe the wind deflector geometry: width, length, height, and angle. A 30-level design of experiments study using the optimal Latin hypercube method was conducted to analyze the sensitivity of the design variables and build a database to set up the surrogate model. The surrogate model was constructed based on the Kriging interpolation technique. The fitting precision of the surrogate model was examined using computational fluid dynamics and certified using a surrogate model simulation. Finally, a multi-island genetic algorithm was used to optimize the shape of the wind deflector based on the surrogate model. The tolerance between the results of the computational fluid dynamics simulation and the surrogate model was only 0.92% when using the optimal design variables, and the aerodynamic drag coefficient decreased by 4.65% compared to the drag coefficient of the tractor-trailer installed with the original wind deflector. The effect of the optimal shape of the wind deflector was validated by computational fluid dynamics and wind tunnel experiment.


2014 ◽  
Vol 2014 ◽  
pp. 1-17 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shubham Singh ◽  
M. Zunaid ◽  
Naushad Ahmad Ansari ◽  
Shikha Bahirani ◽  
Sumit Dhall ◽  
...  

CFD simulations using ANSYS FLUENT 6.3.26 have been performed on a generic SUV design and the settings are validated using the experimental results investigated by Khalighi. Moreover, an add-on inspired by the concept presented by Englar at GTRI for drag reduction has been designed and added to the generic SUV design. CFD results of add-on model and the basic SUV model have been compared for a number of aerodynamic parameters. Also drag coefficient, drag force, mean surface pressure, mean velocities, and Cp values at different locations in the wake have been compared for both models. The main objective of the study is to present a new add-on device which may be used on SUVs for increasing the fuel efficiency of the vehicle. Mean pressure results show an increase in the total base pressure on the SUV after using the device. An overall reduction of 8% in the aerodynamic drag coefficient on the add-on SUV has been investigated analytically in this study.


2014 ◽  
Vol 602-605 ◽  
pp. 477-480
Author(s):  
Jing Yu Wang ◽  
Bao Yu Wang ◽  
Xing Jun Hu ◽  
Lei Liao

The principles and method of computational fluid dynamics were applied to numerical simulate the external flow field about the SUV model. The hybrid mesh of tetrahedral and triangular prismatic as well as the turbulence model of Realizable k-ε was adopted to study the flow field of SUV of flat underground. Then the SUV of complex underground was simulated with the same mesh strategy and boundary condition. The aerodynamic drag coefficient of latter was bigger than former. That illuminated the complex underground has affect to aerodynamic performance of vehicle. The wind tunnel test validated the veracity of numerical simulation. Based on that, the underground cover board was appended; the aerodynamic drag coefficient was depressed. The velocity and pressure distribution and flow line were achieved. The conclusions provide theoretical reference for the further study of aerodynamic drag reduction of complex underground.


Fluids ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (10) ◽  
pp. 365
Author(s):  
Zhendong Yang ◽  
Yifeng Jin ◽  
Zhengqi Gu

To reduce aerodynamic drag of a minivan, non-smooth surfaces are applied to the minivan’s roof panel design. A steady computational fluid dynamics (CFD) method is used to investigate the aerodynamic drag characteristics. The accuracy of the numerical method is validated by wind tunnel test. The drag reduction effects of rectangle, rhombus and arithmetic progression arrangement for circular concaves are investigated numerically, and then the aerodynamic drag coefficient of the rectangle arrangement with a better drag reduction effect is chosen as the optimization objective. Three parameters, that is, the diameter D of the circular concave, the width W and the longitudinal distance L among the circular concaves, are selected as design variables. A 20-level design of an experimental study using a Latin Hypercube scheme is conducted. The responses of 20 groups of sample points are obtained by CFD simulation, based on which a Kriging model is chosen to create the surrogate-model. The multi-island genetic algorithm is employed to find the optimum solution. The result shows that maximum drag reduction effects up to 7.71% can be achieved with a rectangle circular concaves arrangement. The reduction mechanism of the roof with the circular concaves was discussed. The circular concaves decrease friction resistance of the roof and change the flow characteristics of the recirculation area in the wake of the minivan. The roof with the circular concaves reduces the differential pressure drag of the front and rear of the minivan.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-25
Author(s):  
S. Shitrit

Abstract The aerodynamic performance of conventional aircraft configurations are mainly affected by the wing and horizontal tail. Drag reduction by shape optimisation of the wing, while taking into account the aircraft trimmed constraint, has more benefit than focusing solely on the wing. So in order to evaluate this approach, the following study presents results of a single and multipoint aerodynamic shape optimisation of the wing-body-tail configuration, defined by the Aerodynamic Design Discussion Group (ADODG). Most of the aerodynamic shape optimisation problems published in the last years are focused mainly on the wing as the main driver for performance improvement, with no trim constraint and/or excess drag obtained from the fuselage, fins or other parts. This work partially fills this gap by an investigation of RANS-based aerodynamic optimisation for transonic trimmed flight. Mesh warping and geometry parametrisation is accomplished by fitting the multi-block structured grid to a B-spline volumes and performing the mesh movement by using surface control points embedded within the free-form deformation (FFD) volumes. A gradient-based optimisation algorithm is used with an adjoint method in order to compute the derivatives of the objective and constraint functions with respect to the design variables. In this work the aerodynamic shape optimisation of the CRM wing-body-tail configuration is investigated, including a trim constraint that is satisfied by rotating the horizontal tail. The shape optimisation is driven by 432 design variables that envelope the wing surface, and 120 shape variables for the tail, as well as the angle of attack and tail rotation angles. The constraints are the lift coefficient, wing’s thickness controlled by 1,000 control points, and the wing’s volume. For the untrimmed configuration the drag coefficient is reduced by 5.76%. Optimising the wing with a trim condition by tail rotation results in shock-free design with a considerably improved drag, even better than the untrimmed-optimised case. The second optimisation problem studied is a single and multi-point lift constraint drag minimisation of a gliding configuration wing in transonic viscous flow. The shock is eliminated, reducing the drag of the untrimmed configuration by more than 60%, using 192 design variables. Further robustness is achieved through a multi-point optimisation with more than 45% drag reduction.


Author(s):  
Zhiwei Li ◽  
Mingzhi Yang ◽  
Sha Huang ◽  
Dan Zhou

A moving model test method has been proposed to measure the aerodynamic drag coefficient of a high-speed train based on machine vision technology. The total resistance can be expressed as the track friction resistance and the aerodynamic drag according to Davis equation. Cameras are set on one side of the track to capture the pictures of the train, from which the line marks on the side surface of the train are extracted and analyzed to calculate the speed and acceleration of the train. According to Newton’s second law, the aerodynamic drag coefficient can be resolved through multiple tests at different train speeds. Comparisons are carried out with the full-scale coasting test, wind tunnel test, and numerical simulation; good agreement is obtained between the moving model test and the full-scale field coasting test with difference within 1.51%, which verifies that the method proposed in this paper is feasible and reliable. This method can accurately simulate the relative movement between the train, air, and ground. The non-contact measurement characteristic will increase the test accuracy, providing a new experimental method for the aerodynamic measurement.


2013 ◽  
Vol 816-817 ◽  
pp. 1154-1157
Author(s):  
Xu Yin ◽  
Ai Min Ji

To solve problems that exist in optimal design such as falling into local optimal solution easily and low efficiency in collaborative optimization, a new mix strategy optimization method combined design of experiments (DOE) with gradient optimization (GO) was proposed. In order to reduce the effect on the result of optimization made by the designers decision, DOE for preliminary analysis of the function model was used, and the optimal values obtained in DOE stage was taken as the initial values of design variables in GO stage in the new optimization method. The reducer MDO problem was taken as a example to confirm the global degree, efficiency, and accuracy of the method. The results show the optimization method could not only avoid falling into local solution, but also have an obvious superiority in treating the complex collaborative optimization problems.


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