Analysis of the Application of Combined Flow Controls on Vehicle Models by a Computational Approach

Abstract

Aerodynamics on the vehicle body is among the most important aspects to optimize the use of vehicle fuel. In general, a vehicle moving in the air will undergo aerodynamic drag due to airflow in direct contact with the vehicle body. Two of the major contributors to excessive aerodynamic drag are the pressure drop and flow separation occurring at the rear of the vehicle. The use of combined flow control by dimple and suction gives a positive is expected to contribute to controlling the flow separation occurrence. This study analyzes the effect of a combination of active flow control by suction and passive flow control by dimples on the aerodynamic drag of the vehicle model. The vehicle model was the vehicle model with a suction speed of 0.5 m/s. The study was carried out by a computational approach with the k-epsilon turbulence model. The upstream velocities used are 16.7 m/s, 19.4 m/s, and 22.2 m/s, respectively. The study results which obtained show that the use of combined flow control suction and dimples in the model induces significant effects on aerodynamic drag, by reducing the drag coefficient up to 14.82%.