A Further Evaluation of the Ground-Plane Suction Method for Ground Simulation in Automotive Wind Tunnels

For wind-tunnel measurements of drag and lift on passenger and racing-car models, correlations have been established between results obtained with a stationary ground-plane, with and without boundary-layer-suction, and a moving ground-plane.

Compared with the stationary-ground-plane results without suction, the application of suction caused significant reductions in lift. These reductions were smaller, though, than those obtained with the moving-ground-plane, particularly in the case of rear-axle lift force. The influence of ground-plane suction on drag was also less than that of the moving ground-plane, which induced small drag increases.