Host: The Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers
Name : [in Japanese]
Date : November 12, 2022 - November 13, 2022
The purpose of this research is to experimentally investigate how increase of the air inlet area of the engine cooling air affects the aerodynamic characteristics depending on the shape of the front-end of the vehicle body. A simplified 1/5 scale vehicle model was used with reproduction of the engine compartment where FF and FR type engines could be installed. In past researches, we used a rectangular front-end model, and in this research we used a round front-end model with a shape closer to the actual vehicle. In the wind-tunnel experiments, the moving-belt ground board was used to capture ground effects, measuring drag force, lift force and body surface pressure. The experiments were conducted at a wind speed and a moving belt speed of 20 m/s. As a result, the reason for the increase in drag due to the increase in air inlet area was the damming effect caused by the interference between the scavenging air flow in the engine compartment and the underfloor flow. The drag force of the round model was lower than that of the rectangular model, but the lift force was not significantly reduced.
