Influence of rear-roof spoiler on the aerodynamic performance of hatchback vehicle

Abstract

Rear-roof spoiler is commonly used for improving the aerodynamic performance of road vehicles. This study aims to investigate the effect of strip-type rear-roof spoiler on the aerodynamic performance of hatchback vehicles. The main parameter of study was the inclination angle of the spoiler. A computational fluid dynamics (CFD) method was used. The numerically obtained results were compared to the experimental data for validation of the CFD method. The spoiler effectively reduced the aerodynamic lift at positive inclination angle by causing the surface pressure near the roof-spoiler junction to increase. However, its effect is unfavourable when configured at negative angle due to the downward accelerating flow that causes the surface pressure around the roof-spoiler junction to drop. Although the aerodynamic lift was found to decrease with the spoiler angle, this was accompanied by drag increment.