Análise computacional aplicada à melhoria aerodinâmica de um protótipo de eficiência energética

Abstract

Studies related to energy efficiency are gaining more and more importance within the automotive industries, aiming to reduce environmental impacts caused mainly by pollution generated by vehicles. Because drag is closely related to automobile aerodynamics, the area of research related to aerodynamic improvements is gaining more and more relevance. The present work sought to study the aerodynamic behavior of an energy efficiency prototype of the Tuba Turbo team through threedimensional computational fluid dynamics simulations, using manual blocking technique for mesh construction of meshes in the computational domain, seeking to obtain a new geometry proposal with a lower drag coefficient. The computational validation was based on simulations of three meshes with different amounts of elements using the geometry of the Ahmed Body and comparing the results obtained with those of other works. After defining the mesh to be used and validating the solver and turbulence model, it was possible to simulate the team's current prototype, to identify possible points for improvement in the drag coefficient of the geometry. With the analysis of the current prototype of the team carried out, it was possible to propose a new fairing profile to minimize the problems identified. Finally, the proposed new geometry was simulated and the results obtained confirmed a decrease of approximately 50% in the drag coefficient compared to the current prototype.