The Accuracy of the Numerical Solution in Predicting Ahmed Body Components Drag Coefficients

Abstract

In recent years, the aerodynamic drag became a major interest of automotive industry as it is one of the main components affecting the fuel consumption. To reduce aerodynamic drag force and improve the energetic efficiency, a complete understanding of the flow around ground vehicles is highly required. This study focused on the accuracy of a three different turbulence models in predicting Ahmed body components drag coefficients. Ahmed Body is a simplified model which mimics the bluff bodies in automotive aerodynamics. This study uses ANSYS Fluent to simulate the flow around Ahmed Body. Three different turbulence models (K-epsilon, K-omega SST and SST) were used in the study. The drag coefficient components for the different sections of the model were validated with the experimental published data. The results have shown that the SST model predicted accurately the total drag coefficient but failed to provide good agreement for the components drag coefficients.