Effect of moving surface on the aerodynamic drag of road vehicles

AbstractThe effect on aerodynamic drag using a model of a truck has been investigated by controlling the boundary layer separation by the momentum injection method using a rotating cylinder. It involves the use of experiments coupled with computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis to validate the theory of momentum injection. Modelling of the truck has been done on the software GAMBIT©. The best suitable turbulence model was selected by comparing the results with the experimental results. The rotational speed and radius of the cylinder are varied to establish the effect of momentum injection on aerodynamic drag. The coefficient of drag reduces by approximately 35 per cent from an initial value of 0.51-0.32 for a cylinder of radius 1 cm with rotational speed of 4000 r/min.