7th Mira International Vehicle Aerodynamics Conference

Aerodynamics has never been more central to the development of cars, commercial vehicles, motorbikes, trains and human powered vehicles, driven by the need for efficiency: reducing carbon dioxide emissions, reducing fuel consumption, increasing range and alleviating problems associated with traffic congestion. Reducing vehicle weight makes it more challenging to ensure that they are stable and handle well over a wide range of environmental conditions. Lighter structures are also more vulnerable to aerodynamically induced vibration. Alongside this, customers demand an environment that is quiet, comfortable and maintains their vision of the world around them in all weathers. These aims must be met by designing vehicles that engage customers emotionally, promoting the brand values of manufacturers and operators. This can only be done by collaboration between designers and aerodynamicists. Examine the latest developments in vehicle aerodynamic development Explore opportunities to network and share experiences around different areas Focus on future challenges and the engineering knowledge and technology required to resolve them Discuss other areas of development including handling and stability, tyre aerodynamics and modelling, aeroacoustics and fluid structure interaction

This volume contains papers presented at the International conference “The Aerodynamics of Heavy Vehicles III: Trucks, Buses and Trains” held in Potsdam, Germany, September 12-17, 2010 by Engineering Conferences International (ECI). Leading scientists and engineers from industry, universities and research laboratories, including truck and high-speed train manufacturers and operators were brought together to discuss computer simulation and experimental techniques to be applied for the design of more efficient trucks, buses and high-speed trains in the future. This conference was the third in the series after Monterey-Pacific Groove in 2002 and Lake Tahoe in 2007.The presentations address different aspects of train aerodynamics (cross wind effects, underbody flow, tunnel aerodynamics and aeroacoustics, experimental techniques), truck aerodynamics (drag reduction, flow control, experimental and computational techniques) as well as computational fluid dynamics and bluff body, wake and jet flows.

Hybrid modelling of turbulent flows, combining RANS and LES techniques, has received increasing attention over the past decade to fill the gap between (U)RANS and LES computations in aerodynamic applications at industrially relevant Reynolds numbers. With the advantage of hybrid RANS-LES modelling approaches, being considerably more computationally efficient than full LES and more accurate than (U)RANS, particularly for unsteady aerodynamic flows, has motivated numerous research and development activities. These activities have been increasingly stimulated by the provision of modern computing facilities. The present book contains the contributions presented at the Third Symposium on Hybrid RANS-LES Methods, held in Gdansk, Poland, 10-12 June 2009. To a certain extent, this conference was a continuation of the first symposium taking place in Stockholm (Sweden, 2005) and the second in Corfu (Greece, 2007). Motivated by the extensive interest in the research community, the papers presented at the Corfu symposium were published by Springer in the book entitled “Advances in Hybrid RANS-LES Modelling” (in Notes on Numerical Fluid Mechanics and Multidisciplinary Design, Vol. 97). At the Gdansk symposium, along with four invited keynotes, given respectively by S. Fu, U. Michel, M. Sillen and P. Spalart, another 28 papers were presented on the following topics: Unsteady RANS, LES, Improved DES Methods, Hybrid RANS-LES Methods, DES versus URANS and other Hybrid Methods, Modelli- related Numerical Issues and Industrial Applications. After the symposium all full papers have been further reviewed and revised for publication in the present book.

The detailed presentation of fundamental aerodynamics principles that influence and improve vehicle design have made Aerodynamics of Road Vehicles the engineer’s “source” for information. This fifth edition features updated and expanded information beyond that which was presented in previous releases. Completely new content covers lateral stability, safety and comfort, wind noise, high performance vehicles, helmets, engine cooling, and computational fluid dynamics. A proven, successful engineering design approach is presented that includes: • Fundamentals of fluid mechanics related to vehicle aerodynamics • Essential experimental results that are the ground rules of fluid mechanics • Design strategies for individual experimental results • General design solutions from combined experimental results The aerodynamics of passenger cars, commercial vehicles, motorcycles, sports cars, and race cars is dealt with in detail, inclusive of systems, testing techniques, measuring and numerical aerodynamics methods and simulations that significantly contribute to vehicle development. Aerodynamics of Road Vehicles is an excellent reference tool and an indispensable source for the industry’s vehicle engineers, designers, and researchers, as well as for enthusiasts, students, and those working in academia or government regulatory agencies.