Experimental Study of the Skin-Friction Topology Around the Ahmed Body in Cross-Wind Conditions

Abstract

In this study, skin friction around a ½-scale Ahmed body was measured experimentally at a Reynolds number of Re = 2 × 10⁵. The slant angle of the Ahmed body was 25 deg, and the yaw angles ranged from 0 deg to 8 deg. This study focused on the flow structure on the slant surface under different cross-wind conditions. A force balance system was applied to measure the aerodynamic drag of the model. The global skin-friction topology was measured by applying a luminescent oil layer with a subgrid data processing algorithm. The method used to measure the skin friction was conducted for the first time on the Ahmed body. The results indicated that the technique is highly capable of extracting the skin-friction topology. For a yaw angle below 3 deg, the flow on the slant surface was not significantly affected by the cross-wind condition, and the drag of the model was nearly constant. However, at yaw angles above 3 deg, the flow on the slant surface was highly affected by the roof longitudinal vortexes on the windward side, leading to a dramatic increase in the drag of the model. High consistency in the drag and skin-friction fields was observed. The detailed skin-friction structure at different yaw angles will be discussed in this study.