Study on effect of ground clearance on Performance of Aerodynamic Drag Reduction Devices for

Passenger Vehicle Using CFD Simulations

Ashit Kumar, Amarjeet Singh, and Felix Regin A

Maruti Suzuki India Ltd

CITATION: Kumar, A.., Singh, A…, and Regin A, F., “ Study on Effect of Ground Clearance on Performance
of Aerodynamic Drag Reduction for Passenger Vehicle Using CFD Simulations, “ SAE Technical Paper
2015-26-0197, 2015, doi: 10.4271/4271/2015-26-0197

Abstract

Reducing the carbon footprint by meeting stringent emission regulations and improving the fuel
efficiency has become an essential feature in 21st century product design cycle for automobiles.
Aerodynamic drag affects the fuel efficiency of the vehicle considerably. Various drag reduction devices
such as air dam, rim cover, spoiler and undercover etc. are added in oder to reduce the drag

This paper aims at understanding the effect of ground clearance on the peformance of various
aerodynamic drag reduction devices like air-dam, spoiler, wheel cover and their combinations for
hatchback vehicle using Computational Fluid Dynamic(CFD).

CFD has been extensively used for exploring the various design configuration and has helped in selecting
the optimized acro-parts configuration based on aerodynamic performance at concept stage Which has
ultimately reduced the vehicle drag coefficient by 10%. CFD result have been compared with wind tunnel
testing for base configurations Which is having around 96% correlation

Keyword

Air-dam, spoiler, whell cover, drag, CFD

1.INTRODUCTION

Vehicle weight is reducing progreeively every year and the interaction between the aerodynamic forces
and body is becoming more complex and important. Ground clearance affect the aerodynamic forces
significantly. These aerodynamic forces of lift anf drag affect the stability and fuel economic of the
vehicle respextively.

Reducing drag force has become of paramount importance for meeting the customer expectation of
higher fuel economic and stringent emssion norm by governing bodies. Thre are different ways of
reducing the drag by incorporating changes in the body shape i.e. making it more streamlined. However,
these options are limited due to styling requiements. Hence, aero-part like spoiler, air-dam, undercover
and wheel cover are being extensively used these days to improve the aerodynamic performance.
Ground clearance reduction is another way of reducing the vehicle grag and optimizing the lift.

Most of the previous work done is focused towards the simulation of the flow around the car using
various turbulence model or optimizing particular configuration like air-dam or spoiler

Ping Hu [1] has studied the effect of various ground clearance (50-200 mm) on aerodynamics using CFD
simulation for fixed diffuser angle of 12° on SAE model and compared the results with wind tunnel
testing and observed that the drag has decreased with decrease in ground clearance. However the lift
first decreased from 200 to 150 mm and then increased from 100 to 50 mm.

Howell [2] has studied the effect of rear body shape, front spoiler, cooling airflow, and under floor
roughness on aerodynamic characteristics using stationary and moving belt configurations on 1/4 scale
car model in CFD.

Xin Zhang [3] has reviewed last 30 years aerodynamic development on ground effect aerodynamics
associated with open wheel race cars. The effect of ground effect on diffuser and wings has been
extensively studied.

Howell [4] has also studied the aerodynamic drag of a compact sports utility vehicle (SUV) as measured
on road and compared the results with wind tunnel for various configurations of SUV for drag and lift as
obtained in coast down testing and wind tunnel.

Kumar [5] has studied the effect of air-dam height and position on aerodynamic drag and fuel economy.

The wheel rotation affects the drag and lift forces considerably and the performance of aero parts like
wheel cover and air-dam varies accordingly. Based on availability and other reasons, it was decided to
carry the testing with fixed bed wind tunnel, in which wheel rotation was not possible. It is feasible to
simulate wheel rotation in the CFD but for correlation purpose wheel rotation is not considered in this
paper.

The aim of this paper is to study the effect of air-dam, wheel cover, spoiler and their all possible
combinations for three different ground heights on vehicle drag and lift performance using CFD
simulations. The study is focused on selecting the best combination of aero-parts along with optimum
ground height in a hatchback type of vehicle under 4 m category. This will help in reducing the
development time and cost.

2. Analysis Configuration

Three aero parts namely - wheel cover, air dam (50 mm height and 720 mm length) and spoiler (75 mm
wide and 980 mm length) are used in the analysis. Figure 1 show various aero parts used in the analysis.
3. Methodology

A reference line was drawn from the start of the bumper end point to rear end point of rear bumper.
This reference line is taken as the standard ground height. It corresponds to two persons sitting In
vehicle. Progressively the entrire vehicle body was lowered by 10mm and 20mm named as Std-10mm
and Std-20mm respectively. The engine, tramission, suspension was not moved from their original
position in this analysis. Figure 2 shows the above conditions.
Also various combinations were alsk evaluated using CFD. Table 1 show the various 24 combinations
evaluated

4. CFD Modeling

The three dimensional, steady state, constant density, segregated. turbulent flow analysis has been
performed with the StarCCM+ software. The turbulence phenomena have been modeled with the