Moving ground simulation plays an important role on aerodynamic studies of road vehicles, in order to reproduce the real movement condition. Due to cost of implementing a moving ground, many wind tunnels employ static ground simulation with boundary layer control. The work here presented aims to study using Computational Fluid Dynamics - CFD simulations the effect of using moving ground simulations with rotating wheels against a baseline configuration using both static ground and wheels over a small pick-up truck. The study aims to determine the influence of using different flow velocities on the drag coefficient measured over this vehicle using both ground configuration.
For the cases here presented we performed steady state Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes - RANS numerical simulations, following similar setup as the industry best practices and using the same mesh.
Analyzing results obtained, the drag coefficient on moving ground and rotating wheel case is lower than the static case for three first velocities evaluated. This trend, however, changes as the flow velocity increases, and change once again for the highest velocity evaluated. The flow structures analysis by presenting pressure and velocity at the wheel region, illustrate flow changes such as rear wake reduction due to the rotating effects when compared to the static case.