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On-road Turbulence

Journal Article
2008-01-0475
ISSN: 1946-3995, e-ISSN: 1946-4002
Published April 14, 2008 by SAE International in United States
On-road Turbulence
Sector:
Citation: Wordley, S. and Saunders, J., "On-road Turbulence," SAE Int. J. Passeng. Cars - Mech. Syst. 1(1):341-360, 2009, https://doi.org/10.4271/2008-01-0475.
Language: English

Abstract:

The turbulent environment experienced by ground vehicles is currently not well understood. Due to this, and other historical reasons, the aerodynamic testing of automobiles is usually conducted in extremely low-turbulence wind tunnels (<1%), which is in clear contradiction with the small amount of wind data available to date for these heights. This work presents a series of turbulence measurements made in a range of different on-road terrains and traffic conditions. This data was captured using multi-hole pressure probes mounted to the front of a test vehicle traveling at a road speed of 100 km/h. Analysis of the data shows how both the turbulence intensities and turbulent length scales are modified by terrain type, road side obstacles and the upstream wakes of other moving vehicles