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SAE TECHNICAL
PAPER SERIES 1999-01-0803

Windshield Spray Performance at High

Vehicle Speeds
Surya Raghu, Fred Heil and Aland Santamarina
Bowles Fluidics Corporation

Reprinted From: Vehicle Aerodynamics and Wind Noise

(SP-1441)

International Congress and Exposition

Detroit, Michigan
March 1-4, 1999

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Windshield Spray Performance at High Vehicle Speeds
Surya Raghu, Fred Heil and Aland Santamarina
Copyright © 1999 Society of Automotive Engineers, Inc.
ABSTRACT
In this paper we investigate the influence of the aerody-
namics of the vehicle on the performance of the washer
fluid spray. A planar windshield block model with various
windshield angles, as well as a "generic" passenger car
shape with a fixed windshield angle, is used for the
present studies. CFD simulations of the flow field and the
spray trajectories are undertaken in this study. The effect
of windshield angles, nozzle location and crosswind on
the spray performance is presented in this paper. For
very large windshield angles of around 60° (measured
from the vertical plane), there is no flow separation in the
hood-windshield intersection region and the spray trajec-
tory is significantly affected by the airstream for all nozzle
locations.
INTRODUCTION
During the normal operation of a road vehicle the wind-
shield is contaminated by a variety of debris such as
dust, insect splashes, mud, slush, snow, etc. This results
in a degradation of the forward visibility through the glass
for the driver, causing hazardous driving conditions.
Hence, a windshield washing system is a federally man-
dated requirement for all road vehicles in order for the
driver to be able to clean the windshield in a few wipe
cycles. A number of vehicles also have rear glass wiper
systems for the same purpose of providing a clear view
and headlamp washer systems for proper lighting condi-
tions.
An important component of the washing system is the
washer fluid spray nozzle used to deliver the washing liq-
uid to the windshield. Generally a pair of nozzles are
located on the hood or leaf screen positions; in case of
the wiper arm mounted nozzles, either one or two noz-
zles are mounted on each wiper arm. For very large
windshield areas, three nozzles are currently being used.
The two types of nozzles most commonly used for
obtaining the windshield sprays are: 1) a fluidic nozzle
that produces an oscillating jet to obtain a wide distribu-
tion or a spray of liquid on the windshield surface and 2)
single-, twin- or three-jet nozzles that produce a corre-
sponding number of straight jets of liquid that impact on
the windshield. Over 80% of the vehicles manufactured
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1999-01-0803
Bowles Fluidics Corporation
in the US are equipped with the fluidic washer nozzles.
Hence, the work presented here is mainly focussed on
fluidic sprays, but the general conclusions can be
extended to the jet-type nozzles as well.
It is required that good cleaning performance be obtained
under both stationary and moving-vehicle conditions.
Under stationary vehicle or "static" conditions and at low
vehicle speeds (< 40 mph), good cleaning performance is
obtained by proper aiming of the spray nozzles and good
wiper blade contact with the glass surface. However, as
the vehicle speed increases beyond 60 mph (100 km/h),
aerodynamic forces become significant and affect the
spray trajectory, the flow of the washer liquid on the wind-
shield, and the load distribution on the wiper arms. At
high vehicle speeds the droplets also undergo atomiza-
tion, resulting in a fine mist of the washer liquid that is
transported by the airstream over the roof [1].
The observable effect of high vehicle speeds on the
washer spray is that the droplets from the spray are
deposited at a lower height on the windshield compared
to its "static" aim. The spray width also decreases at high
speeds, resulting in a reduced distribution of liquid on the
windshield. In addition, the liquid deposited on the wind-
shield is rapidly transported over the vehicle roof and
around the windshield by the airflow field and, hence, a
smaller amount of the fluid is available for cleaning the
windshield compared to static conditions. Sometimes
this results in poor cleaning of the windshield. Large
aerodynamic forces can also cause the wiper blade to lift
off the windshield surface, which in turn can affect the
windshield cleaning performance. Associated with the
high speed spray problem is also the management of the
runoff windshield liquid as well as rainwater, generally
known as "water management" [2].
Similar aerodynamic influences, although to a lesser
extent, exist in case of the vehicle's rear glass washer
fluid sprays as well as the headlamp cleaning sprays.
Another problem encountered with the windshield sprays
is in the convertible class of vehicles. It is required that
the washer fluid not be entrained into the vehicle cabin at
all vehicle speeds.
This study is an effort at understanding the influence of
the vehicle geometry on the performance of the washer
sprays. A planar windshield with various windshield
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angles, as well as a "generic" passenger car shape with a
fixed windshield angle, was used for the studies. CFD
simulations conducted for both these cases are
described in the following sections.
PLANAR WINDSHIELD STUDIES
Figure 1. The planar windshield box-car model.
As shown in figure 1, a rectangular box-car model whose
windshield angle θ could be varied from 0° to 60° was
chosen as a basic model for studying the effects of the
windshield angle on spray trajectories. A planar "hood"
of constant length l and a planar windshield whose height
h was maintained constant to match the box-car height
was used in the model. The height was maintained con-
stant in order to maintain the same blockage ratio for all
windshield angles. The windshield angle θ is defined as
the angle between the vertical plane and the chord of the
windshield curve. For the planar windshield, it is the
angle between the vertical plane and the windshield. The
commercial software Fluent/UNS (Fluent, Inc.) was used
to obtain the flow field. The flow field was discretized with
an unstructured grid composed of a hybrid mesh of quad
elements and tetrahedral elements ranging from 97000
to 105000 total grid cells as shown in figure 1. The quad
elements aided in resolving the boundary layer near the
vehicle walls. The boundary conditions (BC) employed
were constant velocity inlet at four vehicle widths (W)
upstream of the vehicle and constant pressure bound-
aries at the outlet (8W downstream of the vehicle), upper
plane (4W above vehicle), and side plane (4W away from
vehicle). A symmetry BC was specified at the symmetry
plane, and a wall BC at the underside. The model utilized
the standard k-ε turbulence model with non-equilibrium
wall functions. The results presented are the steady
state solutions of the flow field. Grid independence was
verified by doubling the grid density in the region between
the front of the vehicle and the windshield and verifying
that there was no change in the flow field. Three inlet
velocities were specified, 0 mph, 60 mph, and 100 mph.
The streamline patterns for three windshield angles of 0°,
30°, and 60° are shown in figure 2. Separation and
reattachment points were obtained at angles of 0° to 60°
2
in steps of 10°. The criterion for determining the separa-
tion point was reversal of the x-velocity component. Simi-
larly, the criterion for obtaining the reattachment point
was the reversal of the y-velocity component. The vehi-
cle velocity was set at 60 mph for computing the separa-
tion and reattachment points. Separation and
reattachment points as a function of windshield angle
showed that as the windshield angle increases, the size
of the recirculation region decreases, ending with no flow
separation at θ = 60°.
A plot of the separation and reattachments as a function
of the windshield angle is shown in figure 3. Also shown
for comparison is the data of [3]. As can be seen, the
separation point moves downstream with increasing
windshield angles and the reattachment point moves
downward on the windshield at the same time. Thus the
size of the separation vortex decreases with increasing
windshield. The present computations estimate a slightly
smaller separation vortex compared to [3], but more
detailed comparison was not possible because the actual
experimental conditions of [3] were not available.
WASHER SPRAY SIMULATION – The washer spray
was simulated using the discrete phase model of FLU-
ENT. The details of the model are given in [4]. Briefly,
the droplet trajectories are calculated using a
Lagrangean formulation assuming dilute sprays so that
particle-particle interaction is neglected. The droplets
are treated as a passive phase, i.e., the droplets do not
significantly affect the airflow field. Washer spray simula-
tions were run corresponding to θ = 30° and θ = 60°. For
each windshield angle the vehicle speed was set at 0
mph (static conditions), 60 mph, and 100 mph. A spray of
50° spread angle is used in the present study. The inter-
nal operating details of the fluidic nozzle are not modeled
in this study. Instead, water droplets with equal magni-
tudes of velocity were injected at 20 equal intervals of the
spread angle of the spray. The exit velocity of the drop-
lets is 10 m/s in the present simulations. Thus, it is also
assumed that the droplets are formed right at the exit of
the spray nozzle. The current analysis also does not
incorporate in-situ aerodynamic droplet breakup.
Instead, four droplet sizes (220 microns, 440 microns,
900 microns, and 1800 microns) were used to under-
stand the effects of droplet size on the trajectories.
These droplet sizes are based on the droplet size mea-
surements in a washer spray nozzle conducted with a
Malvern particle size measurement system and esti-
mates of droplet sizes after breakup based on the critical
Weber number criterion [1,5]. The washer sprays also
have a small diverging angle (spray thickness) of 5° in the
direction transverse to the spread angle, and this was
incorporated into the present studies by providing a
diverging angle of 5° to the trajectories of the droplets.
The spray is aimed such that at static conditions the
spray impinges at about 66% of the windshield height
measured from the bottom. The injection point was set at
two typical positions: cowl mounted and hood mounted
(0.1m and 0.3m away from the windshield, respectively).
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(a) Streamline pattern for 0° windshield angle.
(b) Streamline pattern for 30° windshield angle.
(c) Streamline pattern for 60° windshield angle.
Figure 2.
3
Figure 3. Separation and reattachment points as a
function of the windshield angle.
Figures 4 and 5 show the trajectories of the spray for a
cowl mount and a hood mount nozzle for a windshield
angle of 60°. The pressure coefficients Cp at these loca-
tions are tabulated below:
Windshield Nozzle Pressure
Angle Location Coefficient
60° Cowl 0.64
60° Hood 0.43
Cowl mount sprays have a tendency to be carried up the
roof at high speeds for θ = 60° except for very small par-
ticles which are deposited on the windscreen (figure 4).
Droplets from hood mounts for the same windshield
angle, on the other hand, attain trajectories lower than at
static conditions (figure 5). Also, due to higher local
velocities (lower value of the pressure coefficient) at the
nozzle location (shown in the table above), the droplets
are likely to undergo aerodynamic breakup along their
path when the Weber number exceeds unity [1]. For a
much lower value of the windshield angle, θ = 30°, the
spray trajectory is not significantly affected by the air-
stream.
PASSENGER CAR MODEL STUDIES
DESCRIPTION OF THE VEHICLE – A "generic" vehicle
shape as shown in figure 6 was created to investigate the
effect of various parameters on the washer spray perfor-
mance. Details of the cowl area such as leaf screens,
hood lips, etc., are not modeled in the present study. The
parameters that were studied are the effects of washer
nozzle location, droplet size, vehicle speeds, crosswind
effects and modifications to hood geometry.
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(a) Trajectory of various size particles at 0 mph from the nozzle located at 10 cm from the bottom of the
windshield (cowl mount). The difference in the trajectories for the same droplet size is due
to the assumed 5° spray diverging angle in the transverse direction.

(b) Trajectory of various size particles at 100 mph from the nozzle located at 10 cm from the
bottom of the windshield (cowl mount).

Figure 4.

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(a) Trajectory of various size particles at 0 mph from the nozzle located at 30 cm
from the bottom of the windshield (hood mount).

(b) Trajectory of various size particles at 100 mph from the nozzle located at 30 cm from the
bottom of the windshield (hood mount).

Figure 5.

The grid consisted of prism cells on the auto body to cap-
ture the boundary layer, then tetrahedral cells to fill the
domain. Boundary conditions were a constant velocity
inlet at 2W upstream and constant pressure boundary
conditions at 2W downstream and at 2W on all the side
walls. The airflow field was calculated for 0, 20, 40, 60,
80, 100, and 120 mph. The washer spray was injected
from typical nozzle locations on the hood and cowl for all
these speeds. The droplet trajectories are calculated by
a discrete-phase Lagrangean model as described in the
section on planar windshield studies.

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SPRAY STUDIES – A spray with a spread angle of 50°, a
droplet size of 900 microns, and an exit velocity of 10 m/s
was selected for this vehicle. This droplet size represents
the mean diameter of the droplets in the spray at typical
operating pressures. The spread angle is based on the
desired spray pattern at static conditions. The spray is
aimed such that at static conditions the spray impinges at
about 66% of the windshield height measured from the
bottom. This static aim is required to limit overspray on
top and around the vehicle under stationary conditions
and at low vehicle speeds. A typical spray at static con-
ditions is shown in figure 7.
from the nozzles located on the hood undergo a large
downward shift in the trajectories. The nozzles on the
hood were moved up to ±5 cms in the longitudinal and
transverse directions on the surface of the hood but did
not show any change in the high speed performance.
Similar response in the trajectories can be expected in
case of the single-, twin- or three-jet nozzles. Work is
under progress for simulation of wiper arm mounted noz-
zles and other configurations not discussed in this paper.

FLOW PATTERNS – Figures 8 and 9 show the surface

"oil flow" patterns or streaklines on the vehicle at 100
mph for the cases of straight and a 13° yaw of the air-
stream. The flow on the passenger side is highly skewed Figure 6. Generic passenger car model.
resulting in a very large distortion of the spray on the
passenger side. On the driver side of the windshield, the
flow pattern indicates that there will be less cross-flow to
the A-pillar. The main effect of the reduced cross-flow on
the driver side from the point of view of the washer spray
performance is the reduced distribution of the washing
liquid to the bottom of the driver side windshield or the
"heel" portion of the wiper blade. This observation also
agrees with our wind tunnel tests of numerous vehicles
where there is reduced cleaning in that area at high
speeds with crosswind.
The spray trajectories obtained for straight flow and yaw
angles of 13° at 0 and 100 mph are shown in figures 10
and 11. The spray on the driver side looks similar for
both cases at 100 mph, i.e., there is the same amount of
lowering of the spray trajectories to the bottom of the
windshield. On the passenger side, the effect of the
crosswind is to yaw the spray outwards at high speeds.
Figure 12 shows the effect of vehicle speed and cross- Figure 7. Spray pattern from hood mounted nozzle
winds on the trajectories and the spread angles of the under static conditions.
driver side spray for the nozzle located on the hood. The
spray impact location is defined as the percentage of the
windshield height from the bottom where the spray
impacts the surface. Results from only one droplet size
of 900 microns are shown in the figure. For all driving
conditions the trend in the spray behavior is similar. The
spread angle decreases with increasing speed, and at
120 mph the spray fan reduces to about 30% of the origi-
nal spray angles. The spray trajectory is lowered with
increasing vehicle speed, and at speeds of 100 mph or
greater the spray impinges in the lower 30% of the wind-
shield area. The combination of these two effects, i.e.,
lowered trajectories and reduced spread angles, results
in a locally high density spray on the windshield.
The effect of the nozzle location is similar to that of the
planar windshields. Droplets from the spray nozzles
located in the cowl region are transported to the vehicle
roof at high speeds. In addition, since the droplet trajec-
tories are very close to the windshield surface, there is a Figure 8. Surface flow pattern for straight wind
constraint imposed on the height of the wiper arms so conditions.
that the spray does not impinge on the wipers. Droplets

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Figure 9. Surface flow pattern for wind at 13° from the Figure 11. Spray pattern at 100 mph for wind at 13° from
driver side. the driver side.

CONCLUSION

Our planar windshield studies show that the windshield

angle plays an important role in the performance of the
spray at high vehicle speeds. For the range of windshield
angles typical of current vehicles, θ = 50°-60°, the spray
encounters a high-speed airstream that reduces the
spread angle of the spray and also lowers the location of
spray deposit on the windshield. Droplets from wind-
shield nozzles located in the cowl for high windshield
angles (50°-60°) region tend to be transported over the
roof at high vehicle speeds. Droplets from the hood
mounted nozzles are deflected downward to the bottom
Figure 12. Effect of vehicle speed on spray trajectory and
of the windshield. Thus, it is important to take into con-
spread angles.
sideration the aerodynamic features of the vehicle when
positioning the windshield spray nozzles.
REFERENCES

1. S. Raghu, E. Chesnutis and A. Bawa, Effect of Vehicle

Aerodynamics on Windshield Sprays, ASME-FEDSM97-
3123, ASME Fluids Engineering Summer Meeting, Van-
couver, Canada, 1997.
2. Kenneth J. Karbon and Stephen E. Longman, "Automobile
Exterior Water Flow Analysis Using CFD and Wind Tunnel
Visualization", SAE SP-1318, pp. 89-95, 1998.
3. Road Vehicle Aerodynamics by A.J. Scibor-Rylski, John
Wiley & Sons, 1984.
4. FLUENT 5 User's Guide, Volume 3, 1998, FLUENT Inc.
5. L. Bayvel and Z. Orzechowski, Liquid Atomization, Taylor &
Francis, Washington, D.C., 1993.

CONTACT

Figure 10. Spray pattern at 100 mph straight wind Dr. Surya Raghu, Bowles Fluidics Corporation, 6625
conditions. Dobbin Road, Columbia, MD 21045, (410) 381-0400
sraghu@bowlesfluidics.com