• Transactions of the Korean Society of Automotive Engineers
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• v.6 no.5
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• pp.86-96
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• 1998

A numerical study has been carried out of three-dimensional turbulent flows around a MIRA reference vehicle model both with and without wheels in computation. Two convective difference schemes with two k-$\varepsilon$ turbulence models are evaluated for the performance such as drag coefficient, velocity and pressure fields. Pressure coefficients along the surfaces of the model are compared with experimental data. The drag coefficient, the velocity and pressure fields are found to change considerably with the adopted finite difference schemes. Drag forces computed in the various regions of the model indicate that design change decisions should not rely just on the total drag and that local flow structures are important. The results also indicate that the RNG model with the QUICK scheme predicts fairly well the tendency of velocity and pressure fields and gives more reliable drag coefficient rather than the other cases.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2002.08a
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• pp.565-568
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• 2002

In the flow analysis around a bluffbody such as road vehicles, drag reduction has been of the primary concern mainly due to the effect on fuel economy. To reduce the drag, which is mostly due to the pressure difference caused by the flow separation, the location of the separation and eddy sizes are controlled. However, less attention has been given to the effect of the lift. The effect of lift may cause the driving stability problem of the vehicle at high speed white heavy downward effect of lift together with the vehicle weight may require more power to drive the vehicle forward. It is considered worthwhile to pursue the optimal design of the low drag tail shape of the MIRA model while taking the lift effect into account, even though it is considered as a reference. To this end, a commercial multi-objective optimization code, FRONTIER, Is used together with the CFD code, STAR-CD. It is hoped that the results will provide more insight into the flow field around the bluffbody as transportation means.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Automotive Engineers
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• v.4 no.3
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• pp.31-39
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• 1996

The effect of rear-spoiler attached at rear end of automobile trunk on the aerodynamic characteristics of a MIRA reference car model was experimentally investigated. For different shapes and positions(G/H) of the rear-spoiler, the aerodynamic forces on the automobile were measured at various flow speed(ReL). The effect of rear-spoiler on the wake structure behind the automobile was also investigated using flow visualization and hot-wire anemometer. The rear-spoiler modifies the near wake structure and decreases aerodynamic drag and increases driving stability compared with those of the conventional automobile without rear-spoiler. From the experimental results, rear-spoiler of airfoil shape installed at the position of G/H=0.084 shows the best aerodynamic performance.