Windshield Spray Performance at High Vehicle Speeds

In this paper we investigate the influence of the aerodynamics of the vehicle on the performance of the washer fluid spray. A planar windshield block model with various windshield angles, as well as a “generic” passenger car shape with a fixed windshield angle, is used for the present studies. CFD simulations of the flow field and the spray trajectories are undertaken in this study. The effect of windshield angles, nozzle location and crosswind on the spray performance is presented in this paper. For very large windshield angles of around 60° (measured from the vertical plane), there is no flow separation in the hood-windshield intersection region and the spray trajectory is significantly affected by the airstream for all nozzle locations.