Experimental determinations of the aerodynamic drag for vehicles subjected to the ground effect
A moving vehicle creates a flow of the surrounding air, continuous and compressible fluid. When the movement is at a constant speed, the air flow is not time dependent and the flow distribution lines are constant. In fact, however, a vehicle moves in an environment where the air itself is in a conti...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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National Institute for Aerospace Research “Elie Carafoli” - INCAS
2012-06-01
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| Series: | INCAS Bulletin |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://bulletin.incas.ro/files/sebesan_i_tarus_b_v4_iss_2_full.pdf |
| Summary: | A moving vehicle creates a flow of the surrounding air, continuous and compressible fluid. When the movement is at a constant speed, the air flow is not time dependent and the flow distribution lines are constant. In fact, however, a vehicle moves in an environment where the air itself is in a continuous motion. In addition, there are many side obstacles, such as passing objects, stationary vehicles, artwork, etc. All these factors affect the air flow along the vehicle. The shape and speed of the current lines are affected as compared with time. Based on these considerations, the aerodynamics of any ground vehicle is a non-stationary process. The study of non-stationary phenomena may be related to a steady state study using finite difference method, in which time is divided into finite intervals Δt, small enough so that during a specific period a phenomenon may be considered as stationary. If speeds involved are in subsonic regime, solving the equations of motion is simplified. We may consider therefore that the vehicle is moving at speed V1 in the air mass at rest, or both, the vehicle is at rest in a stream of air at speed V1 (this is the particular case of the wind tunnels). For speeds of up to Mach 0.5, the effect of compressibility of air does not influence at all or has very little influence on a flow. In this case, the air density may be considered constant. Also, the effect of viscosity can be neglected in most of the space occupied by the fluid. In order to illustrate the influence of the aerodynamic drag on a ground-effect vehicle we performed a test in the subsonic wind tunnel of the INCAS. |
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| ISSN: | 2066-8201 2247-4528 |