Computational analysis of flow field around Ahmed Car Model passing underneath a flyover

Abstract

A flow structure around a ground vehicle has been studied by many researchers using numerous methods, either computational or experimental. However, no analysis of flow field generated by a car passing under a flyover has been carried out. One of the famous simplified models of a car is the Ahmed body that has been established to investigate the influence of the flow structure on the drag. In this paper, we investigate a flow field around Ahmed body of a single cruising condition as the vehicle passes under a flyover, using a computational method with RANS equation. The main objective of this paper is to evaluate the turbulence kinetic energy and velocity magnitude developed within the wall boundary created by the flyover, to the air flow field that is generated by the Ahmed reference car. It was observed that the simulated airflow passes the vehicle was bounded by the wall of the flyover and consequently changes the pattern of the flow field. Understanding the characteristic of this flow field under a flyover is essential if one wants to maximize the recovery of the dissipated energy which, for example, can be used to power a small vertical-axis wind turbine to produce and store electrical energy for lighting under the flyover.