Comparison of Time-Resolved Experimental and Numerical Data in the Wake of a Full-Scale Passenger Car

Abstract

To further reduce the aerodynamic drag of passenger vehicles, a deeper understanding of the flow field is required. Analysis methods like the dynamic mode decomposition (DMD) are useful to investigate unsteady flow phenomena around the vehicle. DMD results are only relevant for the aerodynamic development, if the used numerical data is able to predict the unsteady physical flow field. Therefore, in this study unsteady hot-wire data in the wake of a passenger vehicle is compared to a numerical dataset of an unsteady Spalart-Allmaras Delayed Detached Eddy simulation. Differences and wind tunnel effects are found and explained.