Large eddy simulation on the unsteady aerodynamic response of a road vehicle in transient crosswinds

A large eddy simulation method based on a fully unstructured finite volume method was developed, and the unsteady aerodynamic response of a road vehicle subjected to transient crosswinds was investigated. First, the method was validated for a 1/20-scale wind-tunnel model in a static aerodynamic condition; this showed that the surface pressure distributions as well as the aerodynamic forces and moments were in good agreement with wind-tunnel data. Second, the method was applied to two transient crosswind situations: a sinusoidal perturbation representing the typical length scale of atmospheric turbulence and a stepwise crosswind velocity corresponding to wind gusts. Typical transient responses of the aerodynamic forces and moments such as phase shifting and undershooting or overshooting were observed, and their dependence on the frequency and amplitude of the input perturbation is discussed. Thus, the utility and validity of the large eddy simulation was demonstrated in the context that such transient aerodynamic forces are difficult to measure using a conventional wind tunnel.