Interference Effects of Cooling Air-Flows with External Aerodynamics

Abstract

State-of-the-art vehicles already show an aerodynamically well improved bodywork with high-level efficiency. To further improve the aerodynamic drag, one potential area is the interaction between the underhood and the external flow. This study presents an experimental and numerical investigation of the interference effects of the cooling-air flow with the external-aerodynamics. Extensive measurements, like forces and total-pressure were accomplished. A simple dependency between drag and cooling-air mass-flow is derived, which will help for daily wind-tunnel work.