Experimental Investigations of Vehicle Base Drag Reduction Using Passive Jet Boat-Tail Flow Control

We present results of experiments on a periodically unsteady compressor stator flow of the type which would be expected in consequence of pulsed combustion. A Reynolds number of Re = 600000 was used for the investigations. The experiments were conducted on the two-dimensional low-speed compressor testing facility in Berlin. A choking device downstream the trailing edges induced a periodic non-steady outflow condition to each stator vane which simulated the impact of a pressure gaining combuster downstream from the last stator. The Strouhal number of the periodic disturbance was Sr = 0.03 w.r.t. the stator chord length. Due to the periodic non-steady outflow condition, the flow-field suffers from periodic flow separation phenomena, which were managed by means of active flow control. In our case, active control of the corner separation was applied using fluidic actuators based on the principle of fluidic amplification. The flow separation on the centre region of the stator blade was suppressed by means of a fluidic blade actuator leading to an overall time-averaged loss reduction of 11.5%, increasing the static pressure recovery by 6.8% while operating in the non-steady regime. Pressure measurements on the stator blade and the wake as well as PIV data proved the beneficial effect of the active flow control application to the flow field and the improvement of the compressor characteristics. The actuation efficiency was evaluated by two figures of merit introduced in this contribution.

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Aerodynamic Drag Reduction Investigation for a Simplified Road Vehicle Using Plasma Flow Control

Volume 1A, Symposia: Turbomachinery Flow Simulation and Optimization; Applications in CFD; Bio-Inspired and Bio-Medical Fluid Mechanics; CFD Verification and Validation; Development and Applications of Immersed Boundary Methods; DNS, LES and Hybrid RANS/LES Methods; Fluid Machinery; Fluid-Structure Interaction and Flow-Induced Noise in Industrial Applications; Flow Applications in Aerospace; Active Fluid Dynamics and Flow Control — Theory, Experiments and Implementation ◽

10.1115/fedsm2016-7927 ◽

2016 ◽

Author(s):

Bahram Khalighi ◽

Joanna Ho ◽

John Cooney ◽

Brian Neiswander ◽

Thomas C. Corke ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Drag Reduction ◽

Flow Control ◽

Plasma Flow ◽

Aerodynamic Drag ◽

Force Balance ◽

Plasma Actuators ◽

Ground Vehicles ◽

Mean Velocity ◽

Local Flow ◽

Plasma Flow Control

The effect of plasma flow control on reducing aerodynamic drag for ground vehicles is investigated. The experiments were carried out for a simplified ground vehicle using single dielectric barrier discharge (SDBD) plasma actuators. The plasma actuators were designed to alter the flow structure in the wake region behind the vehicle. The Ahmed body was modified to allow eight different vehicle geometries (with backlight or slant angles of 0° and 35°). Each of these were further modified by rounding the edges with different radii. Flow visualizations such as particle streams and surface oil were used to quantify features of the local flow field. The drag on the models was measured using a force balance as well as by integrating the mean velocity profiles in the model wakes. The results indicated that flow modifications needed to be applied symmetrically (upper to lower and/or side to side). This was demonstrated with the 0° backlight angle (square-back) that had all four side-corners rounded. Plasma actuators were applied to all four of the rounded edges to enhance the ability to direct the flow into the wake. Wake measurements showed that steady actuation at a fixed actuator voltage reduced the drag by an average of 20% at the lower velocities (below 15 m/s) and by 3% at the highest velocity tested (20 m/s). Model constraints prevented increasing the plasma actuator voltage that was needed to maintain the higher drag reduction observed at the lower speeds.

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Flow Control Around a SUV Simplified Vehicle

Volume 2: Development and Applications in Computational Fluid Dynamics; Industrial and Environmental Applications of Fluid Mechanics; Fluid Measurement and Instrumentation; Cavitation and Phase Change ◽

10.1115/fedsm2018-83444 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Stéphie Edwige ◽

Philippe Gilotte ◽

Iraj Mortazavi ◽

Yoann Eulalie ◽

David Holst ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Drag Reduction ◽

Flow Control ◽

Time Scale ◽

Pressure Coefficient ◽

Dynamic Mode Decomposition ◽

Dynamic Mode ◽

Decomposition Algorithms ◽

Reference Case ◽

Control Techniques ◽

Run Time

The research on the external aerodynamics of ground vehicles can nowadays be related to sustainable development strategies, confirmed by the worldwide CO2 regulation target. Automotive manufacturers estimate that a drag reduction of 30% contributes to 10g/km of CO2 reduction. However, this drag reduction should be obtained without constraints on the design, the safety, comfort and habitability of the passengers. Thus, it is interesting to find flow control solutions, which will remove or remote recirculation zones due to separation edges with appropriate control techniques. In automotive sales, the SUV, 4x4 and compact cars represent a large part of the market share and the study of control approaches for this geometry is practically useful. In this work, appropriate control techniques are designed to decrease the drag forces around a reduced scale SUV car benchmark called POSUV. The control techniques are based on the DMD (Dynamic Mode Decomposition) algorithms generating an optimized drag reduction procedure. It involves independent transient inflow boundary conditions for flow control actuation in the vicinity of the separation zones and time resolved pressure sensor output signals on the rear end surface of the mockup. This study, that exploits dominant flow features behind the tailgate and the rear bumper, is performed using Large Eddy Simulations on a sufficient run time scale, in order to minimize a cost function dealing with the time and space average pressure coefficient. The resulting dynamic modal decomposition obtained by these LES simulations and by wind tunnel measurements has been compared for the reference case, in order to select the most appropriate run time scale. Analysis of the numerical results shows a significant pressure increase on the tailgate, for independent flow control frequencies. Similar decomposition performed in the wake with and without numerical flow control help understanding the flow modifications in the detachment zones.

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