An experimental study on the wake structure behind a van type vehicle

Van형 자동차의 후류구조에 대한 실험적 해석(와류 형성을 중심으로)

The wake structure behind a van type vehicle was studied experimentally with a 5-hole yawhead probe. Through an effective calibration method of the 5-hole yawhead probe, the flow properties such as velocity vector, total pressure and static pressure were obtained on two cross sections within the wake. These results combined with the surface flow visualization performed in the previous study, yielded some information about the wake structure. When the model was placed in a stream with zero yaw angle, two counter rotating vortices were observed behind the model which pull down the surface flow on each side of the model. With increasing the yaw angle, the surface flow on the windward side changed to divide the flow in two directions, one flows upward on the upper part and the other flows downward on the lower part of the windward side. Hence a new weak vortex was created on the upper windward side, which resulted 3 vortices within the wake. The size and the strength of the vortices increased with yaw angle.