Analysis of the Near Wake of Bluff Bodies in Ground Proximity

The effect of several drag reducing devices on the near wake of a generic ground vehicle body was investigated. Drag and base pressure measurements were conducted to identify the effects of the devices on the base drag. A Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) study was conducted to determine changes of the near wake flow field. Averages of more than 200 PIV velocity vector fields were used to compute the mean velocity and turbulent stresses at several cross section planes. The results of the drag and base pressure measurements show that significant reductions of the total aerodynamic drag (as high as 48%) can be achieved with relatively simple devices. The results also indicated that models with base cavity have lower drag than their counter parts without it. The base pressure distributions showed a strong effect of the ground, resulting in decrease of pressure towards the lower half of the base. The PIV study showed that the extent of the recirculation region is not strongly affected by the drag reducing devices. The tested devices however, were found to have a strong effect on the underbody flow. A rapid upward deflection of the underbody flow in the near wake was observed. The devices were also found to reduce the turbulent stresses in the near wake. The turbulent stresses were found to decrease in magnitude with increasing drag reduction.