The Effect of Traversing System on Wind Tunnel Flow Field

Traversing system is a kind of equipment used in automotive wind tunnel experiment to ensure the position of measuring points. It is necessary to do a detailed investigation into its effect on the flow field. This paper used steady and unsteady computation methods to research the flow field around the equipment with slider at different locations and with different ground clearances. The numerical results suggest that locations of the slider have no effect on the flow field distribution. Moreover, when the equipment is far away from the ground, local velocity is 99% of the inflow velocity at X=−0.5 m in front of the equipment, causing a 1% error. So a probe with a length of 0.5m is needed for ensuring the experiment of 1% accuracy. And with the equipment moving near the ground, ground effects intensify its interference so that a longer probe is needed to achieve the same error.