COMPUTATIONAL FLUID DYNAMICS OF VEHICLE GEOMETRY BY REDUCING DRAG FORCE IN ANSYS

Abstract

In this paper, the aerodynamic analysis by varying different air
speeds and considering the variation of aerodynamic properties
as they affect vehicle drag forces in two different road vehicle
models was carried out. The methodology implies importing the
models, respectively, into the ANSYS Workbench for the
computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis using the ANSYS
Fluid Flow (CFX) tool. The optimized model had a spoiler
added at the rear top of the conventional one. The findings
showed that the optimized Toyota Hiace model highly
outperformed and produced better results than the conventional
one. The drag forces and static pressures of the optimized Hiace
model were drastically reduced to enhance vehicle fuel
economy, stability and high performance. The drag force at an
air speed of 40 m/s for the conventional model was -2741.77 N
and -2241.18 N for the optimized one. Literature has it that a
well-optimized aerodynamic design reduces air resistance (drag
force), which is one of the most dominant forces acting against
a moving vehicle. Detailed results obtained at speeds of 45 m/s
and 50 m/s, respectively, are shown in the results section of this
paper.