Advances and Applications in Fluid Mechanics

© 2019 Pushpa Publishing House, Allahabad, India

http://www.pphmj.com
http://dx.doi.org/10.17654/FM023010017
Volume 23, Number 1, 2019, Pages 17-24 ISSN: 0973-4686

MULTIPHASE MIXTURE MODEL SIMULATION

OVER A SIMPLIFIED CAR

Sujit Mishra1, Ashok Misra1,*, P. S. V. Ramana Rao2 and

D. Nageswar Rao1
1
Centurion University of Technology and Management
Odisha, India
2
Centurion University of Technology and Management
Andhra Pradesh, India

Abstract

Simplified car model of the car industries is used to investigate the

aerodynamic parameters at high speed. Various CFD simulation
schemes are found to be most time and cost effective over the
experimental setups to obtain the drag parameters for enhancing the
fuel efficiency of a car. The present study makes an attempt to obtain
the drag coefficient with multiphase mixture K-epsilon turbulence
scheme model over a simplified car using ANSYS fluent which is in
close agreement with that of the existing experimental result.

1. Introduction

Simplified car [1], the benchmark model for the automotive industries
has been started in early 80’s and still continuing as a challenge for the
researchers with numerical simulation, validation and testing of results due to

Received: December 11, 2018; Revised: January 10, 2019; Accepted: February 27, 2019
2010 Mathematics Subject Classification: 76T15.
Keywords and phrases: CFD, simplified car, aerodynamic, drag, multiphase model.
*
Corresponding author
18 Sujit Mishra et al.
its complex three-dimensional wake vortex interactions arising from the flow
around the vehicle under different external flow environments. From the
experimental Ahmed body model [9], it is observed that almost 85% of body
drag is the pressure drag generated towards the rear end of the body and the
wake flow is exhibited in the form of vortices depending upon the slant
angle. Some single phase simulations have been carried out by the
investigators [3-5] to investigate the flow phenomenon which makes an
extensive understanding of the variation of the drag coefficient with respect
to different body shapes in the Ahmed body model. Moreover, some
researchers [6, 8, 10] have even adopted various single phase turbulence
schemes like K-epsilon model, large eddy simulation and detached eddy
simulation for the estimation of the drag coefficients for the vehicle body.
Almost all previous investigations are based on the single phase flow
simulations. But no consulted effort has been made to study the behavior of
drag coefficient over a simplified car through a multiphase mixture model
simulation. A single phase flow model in general is not related to the flow
nature in a real environment. When the sand dust particles are mixed with the
air, the density of the mixture phase gets changed for the domain system
making a reasonable flow nature towards real environment.
Hence, the present analysis is based on the K-epsilon turbulence mixture
model with high Reynolds number employed on a simplified car model to
study the behavior of drag coefficient on it. The simulation results of the drag
values are compared with the existing single phase ideal state results.

2. Geometry of the Problem

A simplified car model for the present analysis as described

geometrically in Ahmed model [2] of length 1044 mm, height 288 mm and
width 389 mm with slant angle of 35° is placed at a 50 mm ground clearance
and 1m away from the inlet inside a 2D computational domain of length 7m
and width 5m (Figure 1). The block factor [7] is considered to be 5.7% in
order to save the computational cost.
 Multiphase Mixture Model Simulation Over a Simplified Car 19

Figure 1. Geometry of Ahmed body.

The velocity of free stream mixture consisting air and sand dust particles
is set to a maximum speed of 40m/s and the Reynolds number is calculated
based on the height of the body considering the multiphase mixture model in
ANSYS Fluent.

3. Governing Equations of Flow Field

The Navier-Stoke equations with low loading volume fraction and

relative velocities using K-epsilon turbulent mixture model is expressed as

∂ G
(ρm k ) + ∇ ⋅ (ρmvm k )
∂t

⎛⎛ μt , m ⎞ ⎞
= ∇ ⋅ ⎜⎜ ⎜⎜ μ m + ⎟ ∇k ⎟ + Gk , m − ρmε + ∏ km , (1)
⎝⎝ σ k ⎟⎠ ⎟⎠

∂ G
(ρmε ) + ∇ ⋅ (ρmvm ε )
∂t

⎛⎛ μt , m ⎞ ⎞ ε
= ∇⎜⎜ ⎜⎜ μ m + ⎟ ∇ε ⎟ + + (C1εGkm − C2ερmε ) + ∏ εm , (2)
⎝⎝ σε ⎟⎠ ⎟⎠ k
G
where ρm , μ m , vm are the density, molecular viscosity and relative velocity
of the mixture phase, respectively. The terms ∏ km and ∏ εm are the source
terms included in the model for turbulent interaction between the dispersed
phase and the continuous phase whereas Gkm , the production of turbulence
20 Sujit Mishra et al.
kinetic energy, μ t , m , turbulent viscosity for the mixture and σ k , σ ε as the
turbulent Prandtl numbers for k and ε. The values of the constants C1ε and
C 2ε appearing in the transport equation are supplied as 1.44 and 1.92,
respectively.

4. Simulation Approach

The 2D geometry of Ahmed benchmark test model for the present

problem is created using computational solver setup with design modeler
workbench in ANSYS fluent. The model is placed at the mid symmetry plane
in the test domain setup without considering the slits. The refinements of 6
numbers of inflation layers and 28694 numbers of unstructured triangular
elements are created over the complete domain near and around the model
under test to capture the boundary layer effects and strong gradient
(separation zones from the rear side) for the turbulence.

Figure 2. Mesh domain of Ahmed body.

The mixture phases are two-way coupled for the fluid and sand dust
particles where momentum and mass get exchanged around the domain.

Table 1. Solver settings in fluent multiphase mixture model

Quantity Primary phase Secondary phase
3
Density (Kg/m ) 1.225 1442
Viscosity (Kg/m-s) 1.7894 × 10−5 -

Sand particles diameter (m) - 10 −6

Velocity at inlet (m/s) 40 40
Pressure outlet (pa) Atmospheric Atmospheric
 Multiphase Mixture Model Simulation Over a Simplified Car
Volume-fraction (%)
Pressure-velocity coupling
Spatial Discretization
Gradient
Pressure
Momentum
Volume Fraction
Turbulent Kinetic Energy
Turbulent Dissipation Rate
Transient Formulation
Time size (ms)
21
- 1-5
Coupled
Green-Gauss Cell Based
PRESTO
Second Order Upwind
First Order Upwind
Second Order Upwind
Second Order Upwind
First Order Implicit
1000

5. Results and Discussion

In this section, the results of multiphase K-epsilon mixture model for

simplified car [2] have been presented in Figures 3 to 7. The two counter-
rotating vortices are weak, the separation occurs along the entire slant and
there is no re-attachment on the slant. Figure 3 envisages that the present
multiphase results of overall coefficient of drag is better approachable to that
of experimental results [9] as compared to the single phase simulation results
[1, 8, 10]. The profiles of velocity vectors and turbulent kinetic energy of
mixture phase at rear slant of simplified car for mixture phase velocity of
40m/s have been shown in Figures 6 and 7, respectively. The pressure drag
caused by the air and sand dust particles being more compressed at the front
surface of the vehicle body and the layers of mixtures are separated away
from the surface to swirl which makes the flow turbulent. Because of
swirling, a low-pressure area behind the vehicle is created as a suction which
has an effect to pull the vehicle backwards which is seen from Figure 5.
From Figure 4, it is observed that the coefficient of drag increases with
the higher volume fractions of sand dust particles at 40m/s velocity speed of
mixture phase. This is due to the fact that when the sand dust particles are
mixed with the air, the density of the mixture phase gets increased causing an
increase in drag coefficients.
22 Sujit Mishra et al.

Figure 3. Comparison of drag coefficients between experimental and

simulation results for mixture phase velocity of 40m/s.

Figure 4. Coefficient of drag at different volume fractions of sand dust

particles.

Figure 5. Pressure contour of mixture phase for mixture phase velocity of

40m/s.
 Multiphase Mixture Model Simulation Over a Simplified Car 23

Figure 6. Velocity vectors of mixture phase at rear slant for mixture phase
velocity of 40m/s.

Figure 7. Turbulent kinetic energy of mixture phase at rear slant for mixture
phase velocity of 40m/s.

6. Conclusion

The multiphase K-epsilon mixture turbulence model is successfully

conducted over the simplified car in a 2D domain setup. It is found that
mixture turbulence model leads to be more accurate, realistic simulation
modeling to investigate the aerodynamic drag parameters over the simplified
car.

Acknowledgement

The authors thank the anonymous referees for their valuable suggestions
and constructive criticisms which improved the presentation of the paper.

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24 Sujit Mishra et al.
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