Vehicle
aerodynamics has long been investigated almost exclusively by experiment.
The „classical“ tool was – and still is – the
wind tunnel. Nowadays however, numerical methods - computational fluid
dynamics (CFD) - are used increasingly. However, before CFD can be applied
routinely it has to meet the following pair of conditions:
-
the necessary; that the physics are reproduced with the required accuracy,
and
- the
sufficient; that the development objective is achieved more quickly
than with the wind tunnel.
The
present publication will show how far CFD has come towards fulfilling
both conditions. The different methods in numerical aerodynamics will
be explained, along with their merits and drawbacks, and the importance
of experimental validation will be emphasised. Prospects for improving
the quality of CFD in the near future will be highlighted. Several examples
from real development projects will be shown.
The
authors are a team of experts from the automobile industry, code
developers and vendors, research organizations, and academia. All have
contributed substantially to vehicle aerodynamics and specifically to
numerical methods, and are currently active in the subject they are presenting.
The
Editors, Professor Dr.-Ing. Jochen Wiedemann is director of the
Institut für Kraftfahrwesen und Verbrennungsmotoren (IVK), Stuttgart
University, and the Forschungsinstitut für Kraftfahrwesen und Fahrzeugmotoren
Stuttgart (FKFS). Dr.-Ing. Wolf-Heinrich Hucho is a consultant in applied
aerodynamics. He is the editor of “Aerodynamik des Automobils”/„Aerodynamics
of Road Vehicles“ and the author of „Aerodynamik der stumpfen
Körper“.
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