Numerical Simulations of Ground Simulation for a Realistic Generic Car Model

Investigations of the aerodynamic influence of rotating wheels and moving ground on a realistic generic car model are presented. For this study, Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) are carried out with the flow solver ISIS-CFD, which is based on a finite-volume method. This paper presents the effects of ground simulation (GS) for the realistic car model DrivAer. Comparisons of the pressure between experimental data and numerical results show a good agreement. A moving ground and rotating wheels reduces the drag and the lift. Though the forces decreases at the front wheel due to the wheel rotation locally, the major change in drag and lift happens directly on the car body itself. The main vortical structures that develop around the wheels are also presented.