CFD Study Concerning the Influence of the Underbody Components on Total Drag for a SUV 2009-01-1157

The aerodynamic characteristics of a vehicle have a significant role on its dynamics performances, fuel consumption, level of produced noise etc. In this sense the automotive engineers design vehicle having some much elaborated exterior shape, the main goal being the reduction of drag. But, in many cases, the geometry of the underbody was neglected from this point of view, especially in the cases of the off-road vehicles, which have recently become more versatile, as seen in Sport Utility Vehicles (SUV). In this paper, using a SUV as example, the contribution of the underbody geometry on total drag is studied using the facilities offered by a professional CFD code. The results show that solutions for the optimization of the body of vehicles from an aerodynamic point of view can be obtained even in a very early design stage, accelerating the design process.