AERODYNAMICS FORCES AND TERMS

PERFORMANCE MODELLING AND CFD

Fabio Bosio – M.Eng in Mechanical Engineering 1

 INTRODUCTION
Basic terminology
• Streamlines, attached and Separated flows
• Velocity distribution
• Laminar and Turbulent flow
• Fluid properties: Viscosity and Reynolds Number
The Boundary Layer
• Skin-Friction Coefficient
• Transition and Lamina Bubble
Bernoulli’s Equation for Pressure
• Applications
• The Pitot Tube
• The Venturi Tube
Flow over Bodies and the Pressure Coefficient
• Pressure Distribution over Bodies
• Pressure Distribution on an Automobile Shape
• Favorable and Unfavorable Pressure Distribution
• Wakes
Drag, Lift and Side Force
• Coefficients
• Typical Values 2
 STREAMLINES, ATTACHED AND SEPARATED FLOW
Streamlines: curves associated with the description of a fluid motion

How do we determinate streamlines?

• By injected smoke (or fluid material)

• It is necessary having smoke with close

density to air

• In this case we refer to a Steady-State

flow

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 STREAMLINES, ATTACHED AND SEPARATED FLOW

Attached Flow: when the streamlines near the solid surface follow the shape of the body

• It can reduce aerodynamic drag and/or increase downforce

Separated Flow: when the flow doesn’t follow the shape of the surface

• The result is an unsteady wake flow, visible far away behind the vehicle 4
 VELOCITY DISTRIBUTION
• When a vehicle moves through air, its shape disturb air particles
• Velocity distribution diagram is used to describe the magnitude of air particles
passing an object

Flat plate
• Introduces disturbance
Parallel to the flow direction

Disturbance
• Visualized by injecting
smoke

CONSIIDERATIONS
• Change in the fluid velocity along a vertical line (Z)
• Magnitude of the Velocity (V), parallel to the free stream direction
• Velocity near the Plate is ZERO (V=0): NO-SLIP CONDITION - No relative velocity
• This boundary is called: BOUNDARY LAYER 5
 FLOW: LAMINAR AND TURBULENT

• Free-stream flow lines are parallel and follow the direction of the average
velocity
• The fluid motions well-organized

• The fluid participles move in a casual direction

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 FLUID PROPERTIES
Loads acting on a vehicle depend on:
• Temperature
• Pressure
• Density
• Viscosity (µ): measure of fluid resistance to motion
• etc…
EFFECT OF VISCOSITY

No relative velocity near two

walls:

• No-slip condition

Viscous fluid is places between two solid parallel

• The lover surface is stationary
• The upper furface is moving to the right at V=constant 7
 FLUID PROPERTIES – VISCOSITY
Connection between the Magnitude of Shear Force, the velocity of the upper surface
and the viscosity of the fluid is:

  𝑭 𝑽∞
=µ
𝑨 𝒉

Different value of ρ and µ

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 FLUID PROPERTIES – The REYNOLDS NUMBER
• Dimensionless
• Use to compare different scaling effect
• It represents the ratio between inertial and viscous forces

 
𝝆 𝑽𝑳
𝑹𝒆=
µ
• Laminar flow occurs at low Reynolds numbers, where viscous forces are dominant,
and is characterized by smooth, constant fluid motion

• Turbulent flow occurs at high Reynolds numbers and is dominated by inertial

forces, which tend to produce chaotic eddies, vortices and other flow instabilities

Typical Reynolds Value Range

Laminar: Re < 2300
Transient:  2300 < Re < 4000
Turbulent:  Re > 4000
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See Video Reynolds
 THE BOUNDARY LAYER
Layer of rapid change in Velocity, where its thickness δ increases with the distance
along the plate

RANGE FLOW VS BOUNDARY LAYER THICKNESS

 SKIN-FRICTION COEFFICIENT
It indicates the level of friction between the vehicle surface and the air

  𝝉   is the surface Shear Force per unit surface [P]

𝑪𝒇 =
𝟏 𝟐
𝝆𝑽 ∞ is the Dinamic Pressure
𝟐

Considerations
• Boundary layer thickness decreases as airspeed increases
• Skin-friction coefficient decrease as flow speed increases
 TRANSITION AND LAMINAR BUBBLE – LAMINAR
Laminar boundary layer is desirable if we want to reduce drag due to skin friction, but
if surface curvature is high the flow may separate, and this drag advantage may be lost
(LAMINAR SEPARATION)

• Laminar Bubble area may separate entirely, without reattachment. It will cause
Drag Ingreasing
• Laminar Bubblemay disappear as the vehicle speed increase
• Is possible to force transition (from laminar to turbulent) by introducing
disturbance, called (tripping of the boundary layer)
See vortex video
 BERNOULLI’S EQUATION FOR PRESSURE
The pressure acts perpendicularly to the surface and contributes to both lift and drag

BERNOULLI EQUATION: relationship between air-speed and pressure

𝟐
 
𝑷 𝑽
+ =𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒏𝒕
𝝆 𝟐
APPLICATION OF BERNOULLI EQUATION

 ZERO VELOCITY CONDITION

 A.
B. ,
 PITOT TUBE

2 concentric tubes:

• The inner one measure the total

pressure, which increases as flow
speed increases

• The holes on the outer tube measure

the static pressure

• The difference between the pressure

in the 2 tubes varies with the square of
the velocity: Dynamic Pressure
 

See pitot/venturi video

VENTURI TUBE

 MASS EQUATION

BERNOULLI EQUATION

See pitot/venturi video

 FLOW OVER BODIES AND THE PRESSURE COEFFICIENT
Surface Pressure Distribution: necessary to evaluate the Aerodynamics Load

  𝑷 − 𝑷∞
𝑪 𝒑=
The Pressure Coefficient 𝟏 ❑𝟐
𝝆𝑽∞
𝟐

Remembering Bernoulli relationship:

  𝟏 ❑𝟐 𝟐
𝑷 − 𝑷∞ = 𝝆 (𝑽 ∞ − 𝑽 )
𝟐

We can express the Cp in this form:

  𝟏 ❑𝟐 𝟐
𝝆 (𝑽 ∞ − 𝑽 )   𝟐
𝟐 𝑽
𝑪 𝒑= =𝟏 −
𝟏 ❑𝟐 𝑽
❑𝟐
𝝆𝑽∞ ∞
𝟐
FLOW OVER BODIES AND THE PRESSURE COEFFICIENT
 PRESSURE DISTRIBUTION OVER BODIES
  𝟏 ❑𝟐 𝟐
𝝆 (𝑽 ∞ − 𝑽 )   𝟐
𝟐 𝑽
𝑪 𝒑= =𝟏 −
𝟏 ❑𝟐 𝑽
❑𝟐
𝝆𝑽∞ ∞
𝟐
PRESSURE DISTRIBUTION ON AN AUTOMOBILE SHAPE
 FAVORABLE AND UNFAVORABLE PRESSURE DISTRIBUTION

Favorable pressure distrubution:

• Areas on the vehicle where the
pressure is increasing along a
streamline

Unfavorable pression
distribution:
• Pressure is decreasing
 WAKES

WAKES CONDITION
GRAD, LIFT AND SIDE FORCE
GRAD, LIFT AND SIDE COEFFICIENT
GRAD, LIFT AND SIDE COEFFICIENT TYPICAL VALUES