Flow Over a Realistic Car Model: WMLES Assessment and Turbulent Structures

Most CFD research on automotive external aerodynamics has been carried out using very simplified models such as the Ahmed car (Aljure, Lehmkuhl, Rodríguez, Oliva, Comput Fluids, 96:122–135, (2014), [1]). To reduce the gap between the production cars and models used for academic purposes, the DrivAer car model was introduced in 2012. References (Heft, Indinger, Adams, SAE Tech Pap, No. 2012-01-0168, (2012), [2], Strangfeld, Wieser, Schmidt, Woszidlo, Nateri, Paschereit, SAE Tech Pap, No. 2013-01-1251, (2013), [3]) performed experimental observations on this geometry. Their results suggested that the Reynolds number dependency of the force coefficients decreased as Re increased. Two values have been reported for Re number independence, \(Re=2\times 10^6\) (Strangfeld, Wieser, Schmidt, Woszidlo, Nateri, Paschereit, SAE Tech Pap, No. 2013-01-1251, (2013), [3]) and \(Re=4.87\times 10^6\) (Heft, Indinger, Adams, SAE Tech Pap, No. 2012-01-0168, (2012), [2]).