Numerical Simulation of Flow Around a Generic Pickup With ISIS-CFD

Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) is used to simulate the flow over a pickup truck. The flow solver used is ISIS-CFD developed by the CFD Department of the Fluid Mechanics Laboratory of Ecole Centrale de Nantes. CFD simulations are carried out with the Explicit Algebraic Reynolds Stress Model (EARSM) turbulence model and the Detached Eddy Simulation (DES). The focus of the simulation is to assess the capabilities of ISIS-CFD for vehicle aerodynamic development for pickup trucks. Detailed comparisons are made between the CFD simulations and the existing experiments for a generic pickup truck. The comparisons between the simulation results and the time-averaged measurements reveals that the CFD calculations are able to track the flow trends.