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Technical Paper

Correlation between Aerodynamic Drag Found on CFD Simulations, Wind Tunel Testing and CoastDown Testing

2015-09-22
2015-36-0345
It is known that aerodynamics influences directly on a vehicle´s fuel consumption, especially at speeds above 45-60km/h, where it becomes the main parasitic loss. With increasing pressure on automakers to develop more efficient vehicles, aerodynamics is playing a crucial role in the goal of saving vehicle´s fuel. Usually aerodynamic development starts in the early stages of the project, responsible engineer works together with designers and body/ergonomics engineers, using CFD simulations as tool. At certain point in the development time line, full scale or scaled models are manufactured and tested in wind tunnels, where vehicle gets a refinement on its external aerodynamics. However, the measurement of aerodynamic drag which is effectively used for homologated vehicle´s fuel consumption is done by coastdown testing. This paper shows a correlation between results from CFD simulations and results measured from wind tunnel and coastdown testing.
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