New directions in computational aerodynamics

It seems that everywhere you look nowadays, new applications of "virtual reality" are cropping up. The latest one to be discussed in the car industry is the idea of a virtual wind tunnel. The concept is simple and appealing: instead of building a test car and measuring its performance in a real wind tunnel, a "virtual car" is generated by computer-aided design, and special software then calculates the airflow over the car. The advantages are obvious. The vehicle need only exist as a concept, rather than as a physical car, and it is much easier to schedule time for analysis on a computer than in an actual wind tunnel. Moreover, much more information can be gained from a calculated flow than from wind-tunnel experiments, even those with the most sophisticated measuring devices. And once you know the flow around a car, you can predict everything from its fuel efficiency and handling characteristics to the noise that passengers can hear inside.