Bluff Body Drag Reduction with Ventilated Base Cavities

Event
SAE 2012 World Congress & Exhibition
Authors Abstract
Content
Various techniques to reduce the aerodynamic drag of bluff bodies through the mechanism of base pressure recovery have been investigated. These include, for example, boat-tailing, base cavities and base bleed. In this study an Ahmed body in squareback configuration is modified to include a base cavity of variable depth, which can be ventilated by slots. The investigation is conducted in freestream and in ground proximity. It is shown that, with a plain cavity, the overall body drag is reduced for a wide range of cavity depths, but a distinct minimum drag condition is obtained. On adding ventilation slots a comparable drag reduction is achieved but at a greatly reduced cavity depth. Pressure data in the cavity is used to determine the base drag component and shows that the device drag component is significant. Modifications of the slot geometry to reduce this drag component and the effects of slot distribution are investigated. Some flow visualisation using PIV for different cavity configurations is also presented.
Meta TagsDetails
DOI
https://doi.org/10.4271/2012-01-0171
Pages
9
Citation
Howell, J., Sims-Williams, D., Sprot, A., Hamlin, F. et al., "Bluff Body Drag Reduction with Ventilated Base Cavities," SAE Int. J. Passeng. Cars - Mech. Syst. 5(1):152-160, 2012, https://doi.org/10.4271/2012-01-0171.
Additional Details
Publisher
Published
Apr 16, 2012
Product Code
2012-01-0171
Content Type
Journal Article
Language
English