A Best-Practice for High Resolution Aerodynamic

Simulation around a Production Car Shape

Werner Seibert and Marco Lanfrit,
Burkhard Hupertz and Lothar Krger,

Fluent Deutschland GmbH, Darmstadt, Germany

Ford AG, TASE, Cologne, Germany

SYNOPSIS
During the year 2001 the CFD-Subcommittee of the European Automotive Data
Exchange organisation conducted a benchmark study to get a better understanding
of CFD and its application within the automotive industry, especially for the prediction
of external aerodynamics. Many suppliers of commercial codes participated and
contributed. Five different car shapes plus a modification of each, either in geometry
or in the boundary conditions were provided, summing up to a total of ten cases. All
of these cases had to be prepared by the vendors free-of-charge and within a tight
time schedule. As a consequence the pure amount of work coming along with limited
resources did not allow to set-up and run all of the simulations as thoroughly as
desirable. Following the idea of the EADE subcommittee to find out whether CFD
can be used today for an aerodynamic optimisation, and getting an assessment of
its capabilities and accuracy, one of the above car shapes was investigated again
and in more detail as a continuation of the first benchmark loop.
The Ford Ka model was reviewed with the goal to create a more elaborate, bestpractice aerodynamics prediction using the Navier-Stokes solver of the commercial
code FLUENT 6. Based on the identical CAD-files as used during the first loop of the
benchmark, new high-resolution hybrid meshes have been created for the base
geometry. The improvement in the accuracy of predicting drag coefficients is shown,
the influence of various turbulence models (realisable k- and Reynolds Stress
Model) is discussed as well. A time-accurate simulation representing 2.5 seconds in
physical time was also performed and is documented. Recommendations for setting
up, for the necessary hardware environment and the handling of such simulations
are given. All results of the computations are validated using the appropriate windtunnel data.

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1.

SUMMARY OF CASES INVESTIGATED

A total number of 4 simulation runs have been performed for the Ford Ka
configuration, based on 2 mesh arrangements with different resolutions. The
geometry used for all cases is identical and is taken from the data released for the
initial EADE Aerodynamics Benchmark in 2001, and its detailing is fairly close to the
car which can be seen out on the road. The description of the surfaces was
transferred using IGES format in a scale of 1:1. Exactly the same CAD data has
been used for the manufacturing of the 1:1 wind-tunnel model.

Fig. 1: Surface geometry of

the present configuration

Fig. 2: Underbody of the

present configuration

The model features a detailed, asymmetric underbody, wheels and wheel wells, side
mirrors, off-sets at the windshield and the side windows. The intake areas for brakes
and cooling air are closed.
Common to all simulation runs are the boundary conditions, prescribed in
accordance with the wind-tunnel test arrangement. The wheels are fixed and there is
neither a moving ground nor boundary layer suction. The velocity of the free stream
is 140 km/h approaching the car body at 0 degrees of yaw.
Mesh Resolution and Cell Count
With regard to the meshes, two different cases were used for the computations. The
first or initial mesh was created during the first loop of the benchmark and will be
referred to as the coarse mesh. A second one with higher resolution both in surface
and volume mesh was prepared for the present follow-up investigation. It will be
referred here as the fine mesh. In both cases the available hardware to run
subsequent computing jobs actually set the limitations.
The coarse mesh should be regarded as a minimum or entry-level in resolution,
suitable to get iterated to convergence with 2-4 processors of ordinary workstations.
The fine mesh needs several clustered workstations or some shared memory
platform, a total number of 8-16 processors is recommended to achieve solutions
within timeframes acceptable for engineers in the automotive industry. Both numbers
given are valid for steady-state solutions. The hardware prerequisites for timeaccurate computations are discussed within a separate chapter, although the mesh
used is identical to the fine case.
It should be mentioned in this context, that the fine mesh shown under no
circumstances means an upper limit to the present approach, instead it reaches just

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about one half of the total cell count which is typically used today for leading-edge,
high-tech simulations, e.g. for the development of racing cars.
The following table lists some characteristics of the two mesh set-ups used for all the
computations which are discussed here. Mesh adaption was applied only in the
coarse mesh case, the fine mesh case did not need any further modification.
typical element length at car body
# of surface elements at car (triangles)
# of near wall prismatic layers
initial # of volume cells (prisms + tetrahedra)
final # of volume cells after adaption

coarse mesh
10 - 20 mm
326 K
5
3.5 M
5.5 M

fine mesh
2 - 10 mm
760 K
5
11.0 M
11.0 M

Fig. 3: Table of meshing characteristics

The implication of lowering the typical element length at the cars surface becomes
obvious, if two snapshots of the resulting surface mesh at the rear-view mirror and
the surrounding area are compared.

Fig. 4

Typical resolution of the surface by coarse and fine mesh case

Fig. 5

Best-Practice Meshing for Simulation of Vehicle Aerodynamics

A high-quality, non-uniform surface mesh resolving all radii well built the basis for the
fine mesh case. A reasonable resolution of the boundary layers was ensured by the
extrusion of 5 prismatic near wall layers from the upper parts of the car bodys
surface mesh. The aspect ratio (element length to element height) is typically 5, a
growth rate of 1.2 is recommended and was matched during the creation of the
subsequent layers, located on top of each other. These rules lead to a smooth
transition in the growing volume size not just for the prismatic layers, but also for the
adjoining tetrahedral elements, surrounding the near wall mesh. Checks of the y+
values during the following computations showed, that for both the coarse and the
fine mesh the appropriate values are well within the recommended and valid range,
below 300 for the coarse mesh and below 160 for the fine mesh. The prism layers
are extruded on the upper side of the car, comprising: roof, side, back, engine hood
and windscreen, thus covering all of the upper car.

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Another set of prism layers is located on the floor of the wind-tunnel. The complex
geometry of the underbody with all its cavities and a small region close to the footprint of the wheels (surfaces are intersecting at very small angles) are meshed with
tetrahedra only. As a consequence there are some exposed rectangular side faces
of the layers, where a transition to triangular elements filling the remaining parts of
the computational domain has to be done. Best practice is to duplicate these side
faces and re-mesh the copy with tri-elements before the final filling with tets.
Handling of the two different mesh types adjacent to each other is done by the
solvers arbitrary interface feature.

Fig. 6: Exposed rectangular side faces

at an edge of the prismatic layers

Fig. 7: Re-triangulated mesh for

transition to tetrahedral volume cells

For a better local control of the volumetric mesh density within the cuboid
representing the walls of the wind-tunnel another box was defined. This artifice
allows one to concentrate most of the volume cells within the near-body and wake
area, where high gradients of the flow velocities are expected. No cells must be
wasted within the far-field towards the outer boundaries of the domain.

Fig. 8: Centre plane cut

through coarse volume mesh

Fig. 9: Centre plane cut

through fine volume mesh

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2.

SUMMARY OF THE STEADY-STATE RESULTS

With respect to the aerodynamic coefficients, the integral results of the steady-state
computations are listed in a table and compared to the values received from a windtunnel experiment.
Case 1 was computed on a simple workstation cluster, comprising 4 processors, so
some overhead time caused by the network is included in the shown total time.
Cases 2 and 3 ran on shared memory machines, where 16 and 32 processors were
used respectively. Nevertheless for giving just an idea of what hardware resources
are needed, the computing hours were simply multiplied with the number of used
processors and are shown here as CPU hrs.
case
0
1
2
3

mesh size & turbulence model

wind-tunnel experiment
coarse mesh (5.5 M cells) realizable kfine mesh
(11 M cells) realizable kfine mesh
(11 M cells) RSM

cD
0.321
0.336
0.328
0.322

cD
4.7 %
2.1 %
0.3 %

CPU hrs
450
750
1200

Fig. 10: Table of drag coefficients and computing time spent

Now its clearly visible, that the initial, coarse mesh case which was supplied to the
EADE benchmark does not fulfil the accuracy standard that typically is expected by a
thorough simulation setup. Although in cases where classical three-box-type cars
(sedan shape) are investigated, mesh sizes of 5 -6 M cells are sufficient to deliver a
drag prediction of about 3% accuracy. This corresponds to the results achieved
during the Benchmark when looking at the other cases investigated [1].
But running a simulation for a compact hatchback car as the Ford Ka, featuring a
characteristic separation area which is typically greater than one half of the reference
area, a standard approach no longer leads to satisfying results. Raising the total cell
count (by a factor of 2 for the present case) and making sure that the higher
resolution is not only concentrated close to the body, but covers the wake and all
other potential separation regions (aft of the tyres and rear-view mirrors) as well, will
again lead to an acceptable accuracy. With such a high-resolution mesh there is only
one question left: how much CPU-time can be afforded. Choosing the realisable kturbulence model, is the fastest, straightforward approach, usually is leading to an
accuracy in drag-prediction better than 3%. A solution with RSM typically needs a
somewhat longer computing time (factor is approx. 1.6), it is more demanding with
respect to the quality of the mesh (low skewness), but is able to deliver a prediction
in drag which is well within the tolerance of an experiment (0.3% difference in the
present case). The basic approach of creating a hybrid mesh with near wall prismatic
layers and tetrahedra for all other parts of the computational domain, remains the
same when such a high-accuracy solution is targeted.
A comparison of the pressure coefficients plotted along the centreline within the mid
plane of the car (Fig.11) illustrates some of the improvement when switching from
the coarse to the fine mesh and on the fine mesh, from the realisable k- to the RSM
turbulence model. Most notably, the peak pressure located at the foot of the
windshield is now captured much better by the high-resolution simulations.

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Fig. 11:
Pressure coefficient
along centreline

The comparison of the wake pictures created within a plane x=const. at 100 mm
behind the rear end of the car shows also some remarkable changes. But before
discussing these, the circumstances under which such pictures are created, should
be explored a bit. The measured total pressure of the experiment is by nature timeaveraged and represents more or less the silhouette of the car, although not being
completely symmetric as would be expected, at least within the upper part (Fig. 12).
A comparable plot based on the computed results of case 1 (Fig. 13) looks also
roughly symmetric. For a steady-state solution on a coarse mesh, the numerical
diffusion is relatively high, which leads to some averaging effect in the computation
as well. Unfortunately this is not necessarily a time-averaging. Time-dependencies
within a flow field typically create a slightly unstable solution, this usually may be
observed by looking at the residuals. Although integral values, such as the drag
coefficient, may become stable and look converged, local values within the flow-field
might still be subject to changes during any further iteration steps. The steady-state
approach is strictly speaking applicable only to time-independent flows.
In cases, where there are transient effects maltreated by running a steady-state
solution procedure, the post-processing for a specific iteration shows flow conditions
belonging to some non-physical time. It is simply a snapshot of the variables at an
instant. This effect, which might easily lead to misinterpretation or at least become a
matter of discussion during the validation of computational results, becomes even
more obvious, when a high-resolution simulation is investigated in detail.

Fig. 12: Experiment

Fig. 13: Case 1
Fig. 14: Case 3
Total pressure in wake plane behind the car vs. simulation assuming steady-state!

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A plot of the total pressure wake contours delivered by the high-resolution RSM case
(Fig.14) shows an extremely asymmetric shape. But being aware of the restrictions
with respect to the applicability of a quasi steady-state simulation to a highly timedependant flow field, should prevent one from spending time finding reasons for all
the details of such a picture. Indeed this is nothing more than a snapshot of the wake
contours at some point of the solution process. It may look completely different
when investigated at another stage of the iteration process. What this picture does
show is, that the increased density of the mesh yields a much better rendering of the
vortices created by the A-pillar and the rear-view mirror. But for a valid assessment
of such wake pictures and its details created by time-dependant flow, a transient
simulation providing time-accuracy seems to be indispensable.
3.

TRANSIENT SIMULATION

The above steady-state simulations were solved far beyond the usually sufficient
number of 2000-3000 iterations, but although the residuals reduced quite well and
led to the results listed, they did not completely stabilise and showed some
remaining random oscillatory behaviour. By looking into the flow field and isolating
those volume cells having high mass imbalance values, the areas where the flow is
time-dependant can be located. Apparently it is mainly in the wake region where
there is a noticeable imbalance, and to a lesser extent behind the rear-view mirrors
and aft of the front tyres.
Fig. 15:
Marked cells with high
mass imbalance
(coarse mesh, case 1)
Actually this is not surprising, as the flow around vehicles is nearly always transient in
nature. But with regard to the highly compact shape of this vehicle, leading to a large
and unstable separation area in the rear, this car seemed to be an especially
interesting and challenging case for further investigations by a time-dependent
simulation. Such a computation should at least help to understand the problem with
the deformed wake-contours as described above. It could also show a possible
dependency between the transient phenomena and the aerodynamic coefficients.
Furthermore it could also give some insight into the topology of the detached flow
and maybe help to understand its mechanisms. It would become indispensable in
cases where aeroacoustic effects are the main subject of a simulation [2].
On checking the values of effective viscosity in the wake region of the steady-state
solutions (these are used to close the RANS equations), we should not be surprised
to see a fully turbulent vortex street. When looking at the ideal shape of a 2D cylinder
and using this generic shape as a reference, we may expect a Strouhal Number of
roughly 0.25, which yields a frequency of approximately 7 Hz (period 0.14 sec).

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The recommended minimum approach is to perform at least 30 time-steps per

period, assuming the above frequency this leads to a resolution in time of 0.005
seconds. Furthermore a total number of at least 10 periods should be treated. Thus
a physical time frame of roughly 1.5 seconds ought to be considered. Within each
time-step about 20 iterations will be necessary, this finally yields to a total number of
approximately 6000 iterations.
As a Case 4 a transient simulation was initiated, running the same numerical model
setup as the steady-state fine mesh cases, but now using global time-stepping.
Following the considerations above, a total physical time of 2.5 seconds was treated,
allowing the flow-field to convert from the quasi steady-state, initial solution to a fully
time-dependent and -accurate state. Roughly 9 days have been spent on 32
processors of an SGI Origin, which is about 7000 CPU hrs.

Fig. 16: Clipping of the drag history

during transient simulation
Monitoring the drag coefficient during the
solution iteration, does not show a proper
periodicity as known from the regular vortex
street behind a cylinder. Instead it varies within
a range of about +/- 3% with respect to the
steady-state value (Fig.16). But processing the
received data sequence by a Fourier analysis
leads to a frequency of 6.8 Hertz, which is very
close to the assumption made before starting the
run.
Fig. 17:
Sequence of transient
velocity contours aft of
the car

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The size and the location of the rear separation area notably vary in time. A more indepth investigation shows, that there are several effects contributing and
superimposing to give the final, observed behaviour.
The velocity contours in the rear shown as a sequence (Fig.17) and the wake
pictures (Fig.18 and Fig. 19) can convey only a weak impression of the actual
interaction of various flow phenomena. Vortices created at the front wheels, the cowl,
the rear-view mirrors and the A-pillar are all travelling downstream, combining and
influencing the wake pulsation.

Fig. 18:
Velocity contours within a horizontal
plane located at the mirror height
Looking at the time-dependant variation of the wake contours (Fig.19) it becomes
obvious, that its hard to compare such snapshots with an averaged plot based on
the wind-tunnel measurements (Fig.12). The observable deviation actually becomes
even larger, when a more accurate CFD-solution is used for such a comparison.
Hence the creation of animations is strongly recommended for the post-processing of
transient simulations. They are helpful to understand the interaction and the
dependencies of the participating flow phenomena. They may help as well to explore
the underlying mechanisms.

Fig. 19:
Sequence of timedependant wake
contours within a plane
behind the car

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For a validation of transient results against time-averaged wind-tunnel data it is

necessary to take care of some sampling of data during the simulation runs. Once
the computation is done, such a data-base can be processed to create timeaveraged post-processing.
And only at the end of such a process can, for example, contour pictures of the wake
be compared to those created from the measured, averaged values. Although
FLUENT 6 provides such functionality [3], unfortunately it was not activated at the
right time in this case (lessons learned ).
4.

CONCLUSIONS

During the EADE Benchmark in 2001 an aerodynamic simulation of the Ford Ka was
created by Fluent based on a 5.5M cell hybrid mesh. Unfortunately the computed
drag coefficient showed a deviation of 4.7% versus the windtunnel-measurement and
did not fall within the expected range of accuracy that typically is achieved when a
comparable approach is applied to a notchback car. By the preparation of a highresolution mesh with 11M cells now and re-computing the case with the same
turbulence model as before (realisable k- ), it was possible to increase the accuracy
in predicting the coefficient of drag to 2.1%. This deviation was further reduced to
0.3% by switching to the Reynolds Stress Model. Although the compact shape of the
investigated Ford Ka production car leads to a large separation area in the back,
these measures yield a substantial improvement in calculating the integral
coefficients without taking the time-dependencies into account. Attention has to be
paid during the validation of such results, especially when comparing variables close
to or within the wake. The wind-tunnel data available for the present case is timeaveraged and must not be compared to post processing at one instance of a
simulation run. To investigate the behaviour of the separation area in a more indepth way, an additional transient simulation has been run and documented, mainly
by creating animations. These may demonstrate the capabilities of the present CFDmethod and its potential to assist the aerodynamicist in getting a better
understanding of reasons for and mechanisms of flow separation for given vehicle
shapes.
(Special thanks go to Dale Eckart of Ford in Dearborn for providing the hardware
resources to run the transient simulation and the assistance in creating the animation
of the results.)
5.
[1]
[2]

[3]

REFERENCES
Kerschbaum H., Bartelheimer W. (Editors)
EADE CFD Benchmark Report, Munich, September 2001
Sovani S., Hendriana D.
Predicting Passenger Car Window Buffeting with Transient
External Aerodynamics Simulations
10th Conference of the CFD Society of Canada, Windsor, June 2002
FLUENT 6 Users Manual
Fluent Inc., Lebanon NH, 2001

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