Aerodynamic characteristics of MIRA automobile model based on fluid–structure coupling

Abstract

In this paper, the aerodynamic characteristics of a vehicle model are analyzed through numerical simulation considering the fluid–structure interaction (FSI) effect, and the accuracy of the simulation method is verified by comparison with the wind tunnel experiment. Then, the wind-induced vibration of vehicles under time-varying crosswind is studied and applied to engineering problems, such as vehicle sideslip and roll. The results show that the deviation between the FSI simulation and wind tunnel test is less than 10%, proving that the numerical method is feasible. The FSI effect on the aerodynamic lift is obvious, and its influence mechanism is mainly due to the change in body position, which changes the topological structure of the shedding or separated vortex in the flow field. As for the aerodynamic lift, a big gap exists between the results of the numerical simulations with and without coupling; high-intensity side wind will seriously affect the vehicle stability, and the uncoupled numerical simulation decreases the accuracy of the vehicle design.