Fluid-structure interaction study of three-dimensional vehicle model under crosswind

Abstract

It is very important to study fluid-structure interaction of vehicles which move in strong crosswind environment. For solving a fluid-structure interaction problem, the effect of the deformation and vibration of the elastic body on the flow field should be considered. However, the reaction of the vibrating flow field on the vehicle body should be computed. A kind of coach model is selected for solving the fluid-structure coupling problem. We have considered the interaction of the deformation of vehicle suspension and the displacement of sprung mass and the flow field around the coach model using a numerical simulation. The coupling method is partitioned but loosely coupled with the Fluent software to describe the flow field and the ANSYS software to describe the reaction of the structure. The numerical results are in good agreement with the experimental data.