The New China Automotive Engineering Research Institute Co., Ltd Full-Scale Aero-acoustic Wind Tunnel

The China Automotive Engineering Research Institute Co., Ltd (CAERI) has completed a new vehicle aero-acoustic wind tunnel (AAWT), which is located in Chongqing, China, and has been in operation for 5 years. To help address Chinese vehicle market’s need to improve fuel economy, reduce exhaust emissions, and decrease product development period, the wind tunnel was designed and implemented to achieve high degree of automation for vehicle test and high accuracy aerodynamic and acoustic test for product development. The CAERI wind tunnel was in operation in August 2019, which has a top speed of 250 kph, a 5-belt rolling road system with a long center belt for proper wake simulation, a test section with very low static pressure gradient, background noise and an overhead traverse both for wind tunnel calibration and customized measurement activities. This paper describes the main facilities of AAWT including some auxiliary equipment. The aerodynamic and acoustic performances of the CAERI AAWT are summarized. Brief comparisons of wind tunnel flow field parameters to the WLTP certification demand are included. In addition, the correlation and correction results, between CAERI and FKFS wind tunnel, of aerodynamic test measured by the two vehicles (Sedan and SUV) were shown to indicate the reliability of the flow field parameters of CAERI wind tunnel and the stability of the test results.