Nihon Kikai Gakkai ronbunshu (Oct 2014)
Aerodynamic force acting on a road vehicle in steady-state cornering
Abstract
The objective of this study is to investigate aerodynamics and its generating mechanism of a road vehicle in steady-state cornering, which is the most basic cornering condition. The vehicle motion in the steady-state cornering was defined on a frame of reference fixed on the vehicle and it was divided into a rotation around a vertical axis and a sideslip. Then, aerodynamic force generated by each motion and its generating mechanism was discussed. In order to reproduce an effect of the rotational motion, a towing tank experiment was conducted to measure the fluid-dynamic force acting on a one-fifth-scale model of a sedan-type road vehicle. Assuming that the fluid-dynamic forces are expressible as a linear superposition of effects of the rotation and sideslip, first derivatives of the side force and yaw moment with respect to the yaw rate and the lateral velocity were analyzed by a multiple linear regression analysis. From the results of measurement and analysis, it was clarified that the assumption can provide good approximations of the force and the moment within a range of measurement conditions in this study. Regarding the fluid-dynamic side force, the rotation generates a centripetal force of the circular motion and the sideslip generates a force suppressing the slip motion. Regarding the fluid-dynamic yaw moment, the rotation generates a moment suppressing the rotation, and the sideslip generates a moment enhancing the vehicle's slip angle. Aerodynamics of a sedan-type road vehicle was estimated quasi-steadily by multiple regression equations with measured vehicle motion in an on-road test. From this estimation, the effects of both the rotation and the sideslip had the same order of magnitude. This result indicates that the effects of the vehicle's rotational motion have the same level of importance as the effects of the sideslip in vehicle aerodynamics in steady-state cornering.
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