On the Influence of Wheel Shape upon the Drag Coefficient of a Road Vehicle

Abstract

The effect of wheel shape on the aerodynamic drag of a road vehicle was investigated. The special focus is on the correlation of the drag between an isolated wheel without vehicle body and an entire vehicle the wheel is mounted on. A positive correlation was confirmed by numerical simulation and wind-tunnel measurements. The mechanism of generating the aerodynamic drag was found to be similar between the isolated wheel and that mounted on the vehicle body. These results suggest the possibility of estimating the effect of wheel shape upon the drag coefficient of the vehicle by the isolated wheel analysis.