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The analysis of the acoustic behavior of flow fields has gained importance in recent years, especially in the automotive industry. The comfort of the driver is heavily influenced by the noise levels and characteristics, especially during long distance drives. Simulation tools can help to analyze the acoustic properties of a car at an early stage of the development process. This work focuses on the low-frequency sound effects, which can be a significant noise component under certain operating conditions. As a first step in the fluid-structure interaction workflow, the flow around a series-production vehicle is simulated, including passenger cabin and underhood flow. The complexity of this model poses extensive demands on the simulation software, concerning meshing, turbulence modeling and level of parallelism. We conducted a transient simulation of the compressible fluid flow, using a hybrid RANS/LES approach.

Aim of the ongoing development of passenger cars is to predict the interior acoustics early in the development process. A significant noise component results from the flow phenomena in the area of the side window. Wind noise is a physical problem that involves the three complicated aspects each governed by different physics: The complex turbulent flow field in the wake of the a-pillar and the side mirror is characterized by velocity and pressure fluctuations. The flow field generates sound which is transmitted into the passenger cabin. In addition to that, it excites the structure, resulting in a radiation of structure-borne noise into the interior of the car. Therefore, the sound generation is governed by fluid dynamics of the air flow. The sound transmission through the structure due to vibrations is determined by structural mechanics of the body structure. The sound propagation inside the cabin is influenced by interior room acoustics.