A Quasi-Three-Dimensional Computational Procedure for Prediction of Turbulent Flow Through the Front-End of Vehicles

This paper describes the computational technique used to predict flow over and through the front end of vehicles; this scope includes flow over the hood, around air dams, through condensers, radiators, fans, and in the engine compartment. The computational procedure employed is a finite-difference method for solving time-averaged equations for turbulent flow using the k-epsilon model. A two-dimensional program was modified to add variable-depth cells (in the direction of car width) so that some three-dimensional features could be included. A turbulence model was used which is applicable to rotational and irrotational areas of the flow field. The total system model was calibrated with wind-tunnel data, and various modifications to the vehicle configuration were studied. Results from the predictions were compared with wind-tunnel test data.