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Technical Paper

Rapid Design of a SUV by Combining Wind Tunnel Development and CFD Simulations

2018-04-03
2018-01-0712
While wind tunnels often serve as the standard tool for aerodynamic development of vehicles they do not routinely and feasibly offer detailed information into the fundamental fluid structures in and around the vehicle. It is up to the insight and experience of the aerodynamicist to determine what flow features are present and suggest improvements to the design. This is one of the reasons that the aerodynamic development of a vehicle can become a long iterative process. One tool for gaining more information about the flow is Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations, but these methods are not infallible. By combining the fluid behavior information gained from CFD with the trusted measurements from wind tunnel experiments throughout the design process, it is possible to reduce the total time of a development project and produce a more robust and improved design. Discussed in this paper is an example case for a new production SUV.
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