Presented is an investigation of the wind-tunnel nozzle effects on the thermal performance within passenger vehicle underhood area. The Lattice-Boltzmann Equation (LBE) based flow solver is coupled with the system tool to solve for airflow and temperature distribution around the passenger vehicle in the wind tunnel. Several simulations with different nozzle sizes were performed. The simulation results are compared with airflow, temperature, and heat exchangers heat rejection measurements in the thermal wind tunnel. Good agreement is observed confirming that nozzle geometry dominates the airflow around the vehicle. The results show that different nozzle sizes can produce flows that have almost the same macroscopic characteristics while at the same time have subtle differences that can be very important for the vehicle design.

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