Ground vehicles, both on roads or on rail, are sensitive to crosswinds and the handling, travelling speeds or in some cases, safety can be affected. Full modelling of the crosswind stability of a vehicle is a demanding task as the nature of the disturbance, the wind gust, is complex and the aerodynamics, vehicle dynamics and driver reactions interact with each other.  One of the objectives of this thesis, is to assess the aerodynamic response of simplified ground vehicles under sudden strong crosswind disturbances by using an advanced turbulence model. In the aerodynamic simulations, time-dependant boundary data have been used to introduce a deterministic wind gust model into the computational domain.  This thesis covers the implementation of such gust models into Detached-Eddy Simulations (DES) and assesses the overall accuracy. Different type of grids, numerical setups and refinements are considered. Although the overall use of DES is seen suitable, further investigations can be foreseen on more challenging geometries.  Two families of vehicle models have been studied. The first one, a box-like geometry, has been used to characterize the influence of the radius of curvature and benefited from unsteady experimental data for comparison. The second one, the Windsor model, has been used to understand the impact of the different rear designs. Noticeably, the different geometries tested have exhibited strong transients in the loads that can not be represented in pure steady crosswind conditions. The static coupling between aerodynamics and vehicle dynamics simulations enhances the comparisons of the aerodynamic designs. Also, it shows that the motion of the centre of pressure with respect the locations of the centre of gravity and the neutral steer point, is of prime interest to design vehicles that are less crosswind sensitive. Recommendations on the future work on crosswind sensitivity for ground vehicles are proposed at the end of this thesis. / <p>QC 20111206</p> / crosswind stability and unsteady aerodynamics

Detached Eddy Simulations (DES) is a hybrid URANS-LES technique that was proposed to obtain computationally feasible solutions of high Reynolds number flows undergoing massive separation with reliable accuracy. Since its inception, DES has been applied to a wide variety of flow fields, but mostly limited to unbounded external aerodynamic flows. This is the first study to apply and validate DES to predict the internal flow and heat transfer in non-canonical flows of industrial relevance. The prediction capabilities of DES in capturing the effects of Coriolis forces, which are induced by rotation, and centrifugal buoyancy forces, which are induced by thermal gradients, are also authenticated. The accurate prediction of turbulent flows is sensitive to the level of turbulence predicted by the turbulence scheme. By treating the regions of interest in LES mode, DES allows the unsteadiness in these regions to develop and hence predicts the turbulence levels accurately. Additionally, this permits DES to capture the effects of system rotation and buoyancy. Computations on a rotating system (a sudden expansion duct) and a system subjected to thermal gradients (cavity with a heated wall) validate the prediction capability of DES. The application of DES is further extended to a non-canonical, internal flow which is of relevance in internal cooling of gas turbine blades. Computations of the fully developed flow and heat transfer shows that DES surpasses several shortcomings of the RANS model on which it is based. DES accurately predicts the primary and secondary flow features, the turbulence characteristics and the heat transfer in stationary ducts and in rotating ducts, where the effects of Coriolis forces and centrifugal buoyancy forces are dominant. DES computations are carried out at a computational cost that is almost an order of magnitude less than the LES with little compromise on the accuracy. However, the capabilities of DES in predicting the transition to turbulence are inadequate, as highlighted by the flow features and the heat transfer in the developing region of the duct. But once the flow becomes fully turbulent, DES predicts the flow physics and shows good quantitative agreement with the experiments and LES. / Ph. D.

<p>Ground vehicles are subjected to crosswind from various origins such as weather, topography of the ambient environment (land, forest, tunnels, high bushes...) or surrounding traffic. The trend of lowering the weight of vehicles imposes a stronger need for understanding the coupling between crosswind stability, the vehicle external shape and the dynamic properties. Means for reducing fuel consumption of ground vehicles can also conflict with the handling and dynamic characteristics of the vehicle. Streamlined design of vehicle shapes to lower the drag can be a good example of this dilemma. If care is not taken, the streamlined shape can lead to an increase in yaw moment under crosswind conditions which results in a poor handling.</p><p>The development of numerical methods provides efficient tools to investigate these complex phenomena that are difficult to reproduce experimentally. Time accurate and scale resolving methods, like Detached-Eddy Simulations (DES), are particularly of interest, since they allow a better description of unsteady flows than standard Reynolds Average Navier-Stokes (RANS) models. Moreover, due to the constant increase in computational resources, this type of simulations complies more and more with industrial interests and design cycles.</p><p>In this thesis, the possibilities offered by DES to simulate unsteady crosswind aerodynamics of simple vehicle models in an industrial framework are explored. A large part of the work is devoted to the grid design, which is especially crucial for truthful results from DES. Additional concerns in simulations of unsteady crosswind aerodynamics are highlighted, especially for the resolution of the wind-gust boundary layer profiles. Finally, the transient behaviour of the aerodynamic loads and the flow structures are analyzed for several types of vehicles. The results simulated with DES are promising and the overall agreement with the experimental data available is good, which illustrates a certain reliability in the simulations. In addition, the simulations show that the force coefficients exhibit highly transient behaviour under gusty conditions.</p> / ECO2 Crosswind Stability and Unsteady Aerodynamics for Ground Vehicles

Ground vehicles are subjected to crosswind from various origins such as weather, topography of the ambient environment (land, forest, tunnels, high bushes...) or surrounding traffic. The trend of lowering the weight of vehicles imposes a stronger need for understanding the coupling between crosswind stability, the vehicle external shape and the dynamic properties. Means for reducing fuel consumption of ground vehicles can also conflict with the handling and dynamic characteristics of the vehicle. Streamlined design of vehicle shapes to lower the drag can be a good example of this dilemma. If care is not taken, the streamlined shape can lead to an increase in yaw moment under crosswind conditions which results in a poor handling. The development of numerical methods provides efficient tools to investigate these complex phenomena that are difficult to reproduce experimentally. Time accurate and scale resolving methods, like Detached-Eddy Simulations (DES), are particularly of interest, since they allow a better description of unsteady flows than standard Reynolds Average Navier-Stokes (RANS) models. Moreover, due to the constant increase in computational resources, this type of simulations complies more and more with industrial interests and design cycles. In this thesis, the possibilities offered by DES to simulate unsteady crosswind aerodynamics of simple vehicle models in an industrial framework are explored. A large part of the work is devoted to the grid design, which is especially crucial for truthful results from DES. Additional concerns in simulations of unsteady crosswind aerodynamics are highlighted, especially for the resolution of the wind-gust boundary layer profiles. Finally, the transient behaviour of the aerodynamic loads and the flow structures are analyzed for several types of vehicles. The results simulated with DES are promising and the overall agreement with the experimental data available is good, which illustrates a certain reliability in the simulations. In addition, the simulations show that the force coefficients exhibit highly transient behaviour under gusty conditions. / ECO2 Crosswind Stability and Unsteady Aerodynamics for Ground Vehicles