Development of an SUV reference model for aerodynamic research

With the introduction of WLTP, the effect of aerodynamics on the overall emissions is increased. Aerodynamic research can help to reduce the drag of a vehicle with new measures, resulting in a further reduction of the fuel consumption. Therefore, openaccess reference models are needed, that can be used for investigations and CAE method development. These vehicle models need to reproduce the flow details of the basic shape as well as the essential flow structures of the corresponding vehicle.In the global market, SUVs obtain the strongest growing market share. For this vehicle class no model is available, that features a high level of detail. Therefore, this work focuses on the development of the AeroSUV. To depict an SUV, this type of vehicle has to be characterized at first by an analyzation of the legal requirements of the EU and USA. This is added by mean dimensions of 17 models available in the market. The resulting requirements are used to create a first sketch of the model. To replicate a realistic shape, the AeroSUV is optimized using CFD. The resulting geometry is builtup in 25 % scale and investigated in the model scale wind tunnel (MWK) of the University of Stuttgart. The geometry of the AeroSUV is open-access and available on the ECARA website ( http://www.ecara.org/ ).