Table of Contents

1.Introduction ............................................................................................................. 2

2. Procedure ............................................................................................................... 3

a. Solid Work.......................................................................................................... 3

b. Gambit................................................................................................................ 3

c. Ansys Fluent ....................................................................................................... 4

3. Results .................................................................................................................... 6

a. Static Pressure ................................................................................................ 7

b. Dynamic Pressure .......................................................................................... 8

c. Velocity Magnitude ........................................................................................ 9

d. Turbulent Intensity ....................................................................................... 11

4. Conclusion ........................................................................................................... 12

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1.Introduction

Computational Fluid dynamics is used to analyze fluid flows using numerical solution
methods. Using CFD you can analyze complex problems involving fluid-fluid, fluid–solid or
fluid-gas interactions.

Here in this report we have analyzed the fluid behavior around a 2D car model. The
Shape affects most for the sports cars which have high speeds than the domestically used
vehicles. The body shape could affect the performance of the car in,

 Acceleration
 Top speed
 Fuel Efficiency
 Handling

Therefore, to build the best possible car we need to understand and optimize how the
air flows around and through the body, its openings and its aerodynamic devices. Here we have
observed only the air flow around 2D car body.

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2. Procedure

a. Solid Work

First the 2d sketches were drawn in solid works and then was saved in IGS file format.

Figure 1 Solid works Sketch

When drawing the car model we made sure that the car model is within the box(domain)
drawn around the car and also that the car model is a proper contour. The car and the domain
was drawn in meters considering actual scale.

b. Gambit

Then the IGS file is imported in to Gambit Software to create the mesh. First the faces
were created.

 Domain
 Car body
 Front wheel
 Rear wheel

After that the car body, front wheel and the rear wheel was subtracted from the domain.
This is done in order to create the mesh around the car body and within the domain. After that
boundary conditions were set.

 Lower line of the domain – Wall

 Left line of the domain – Velocity inlet
 Top line of the domain – Symmetry
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  Right line of the domain – Pressure outlet
 Car body – Wall
 Rear wheel – Wall
 Front wheel – Wall

Then the face meshing was done and the Domain was selected as the face to mesh. The
spacing was first selected as 1 and was reduced till 0.04. The mesh consists of nodes that are
grouped together to form elements. The more the spacing is reduced the number of nodes will
be increased and it helps the next software to give better results when analyzing nodes which
are set closely. The file is saved as a mesh file.

Figure 2 Meshed Model

c. Ansys Fluent

The mesh file is read in the Fluent software as 2D dimension for further calculations.
The type is set to Pressure based. Energy is set to ON and K – epsilon is selected for viscous.

Figure 3 Setting up type in Fluent Figure 4 Setting up Energy & Viscous

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 The velocity magnitude is set to 19.4m/s which is close to 70km/h. The specification
method is set to Intensity and length Scale. The reference to compute from is set to Velocity
inlet.

Figure 5 Setting up Velocity Magnitude & Turbulence Specification Method

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 In Solution methods the pressure is set to standard and momentum, turbulent kinetic
energy and turbulent dissipation rate is set to second order upwind. Continuity equation is only
selected in check convergence absolute criteria residual monitors.

Figure 6 Setting up solution method

After Hybrid Initialization iterations was set to 1000 before starting the calculations.

3. Results

The car has to overcome drag created by air. Drag, in vehicle aerodynamics, is
comprised primarily of three forces:

 Frontal pressure
 Rear vacuum
 Boundary layer, or the effect of friction created by slow moving air at the surface
of the vehicle body.

Air flow also creates lift and downward forces.

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a. Static Pressure

Figure 7 Contour of static pressure model 1

Figure 8 Contour of static pressure model 2

Figure 9 Contour of static pressure model 3

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 When comparing the three models the static pressure in front of the vehicle is almost
the same for all but the rear pressure is higher in the 2nd and the 3rd model. So the pressure
drag created due to the pressure difference in the front and the rear is low in the 2nd and the
3rd model.

b. Dynamic Pressure

Figure 7 Dynamic
Figure
Pressure
10 Contour
Car Model
of Dynamic
1 Pressure Car Model 1

Figure 11 Contour of Dynamic Pressure Car Model 2

.
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 Figure 12 Contour of Dynamic Pressure Car Model 3

The front edge has been improved from model 1 to 3 by curving and smoothening.
We can see the dynamic pressure near the front edge is low in the first model and it has
increased by the improvement.

c. Velocity Magnitude

Figure 13 Contour of Velocity Magnitude Car Model 1

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 Figure 14 Contour of Velocity Magnitude Car Model 2

Figure 15 Contour of Velocity Magnitude Car Model 3

We can observe the connections between Dynamic pressure and Velocity magnitude
of the air flows. This interprets the same results of the contours of the dynamic pressure. The
velocity magnitude in the rear has lowered from the 1st model to the 3rd model, and this has
helped to increase the static pressure at rear of the vehicle.

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d. Turbulent Intensity

Figure 8 Contour of Turbulence Intensity Model 1

Figure 17 Contour of Turbulence Intensity Model 2

Figure 18 Contour of Turbulence Intensity Model 3

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 The turbulence Intensity near the sharp edges has lowered by smoothing the edges.

4. Conclusion

We can clearly observe the connections between static pressure, dynamic pressure,
Velocity magnitude and turbulence intensity. Reasons to static pressure, dynamic pressure can
be observed from the velocity magnitude contour. This 2D model gives only a basic idea of the
air flow around a car body.

With the improvements of the wind shield and the edges from 1st to 3rd model, the static
pressure has lowered in front of the vehicle. And also with rear shape improvement the dynamic
pressure has lowered thus the static pressure has increased. So by the improvements the
pressure drag which is created due to the difference of the pressure at the front and rear of the
vehicle has been lowered. The turbulence intensity near the sharp edges has also lowered by
the smoothening the edges and angling the wind shield.

More observations could be done by more improvements such as adding a spoiler,

lowering the ground clearance and analyzing 3D models.

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