Study of Flow Over An Ahmed Body and Its Analysis

CFD is extensively utilized in various practical applications within
aerodynamics. This report examines the aerodynamic characteristics of the Ahmed body,
a standard car model. A 2D simulation was conducted on the Ahmed body within a
rectangular domain using ANSYS Fluent R2024. The SST k-omega turbulence model was
employed for this analysis. The solution proved to be not sensitive to mesh variations, with
the final mesh showing a skewness of 0.78 and an orthogonal quality of 0.023, indicating
a high-quality mesh.
Keywords: Fluid Dynamics; Ahmed Body; Aerodynamics

Introduction:
The use of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) is on the rise for examining a broad range
of processes occurring in the lower regions of the atmospheric boundary layer. At the
entrance of the computational domain, the velocity and turbulence distributions are usually
fully formed in a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation. The surface roughness of
the land upstream of the intake plane that is outside of the simulated domain must be
appropriately represented by these distributions[1]. In the computational domain, there are
generally three distinct regions : the central region where the actual obstacles are explicitly
modeled with their geometrical shape. In this case the circular hole is acting as the central
region. The upstream and downstream regions where the actual obstacles are implicitly
modeled, meaning their geometry is not included in the domain but their impact on the flow
can be modeled through roughness. Here, the inlet and outlet section is working as the
upstream and downstream region. Wall functions serve as replacements for the actual
roughness obstacles but are intended to have the same overall effect on the flow[2].Turbulent
flows are highly affected due to the presence of wall where the viscosity-affected regions
have large gradients in the solution. In order to fulfill the mechanics in the near wall area,wall
functions are equations that have been analytically constructed. The universal rule of the
wall, which essentially asserts that the velocity distribution very close to a wall matches up
for practically all turbulent flows, provides the foundation for wall functions [3]. When
evaluating the suitability of wall functions, one of the most important factors to consider is
the dimensionless wall distance, or y+. If (5 < y+ < 30) then it’s the buffer layer Since the
region is complicated and the viscous and turbulent loads are of comparable magnitude, the
original wall functions avoid the initial cell center
this area and the velocity profile is poorly defined [3].For (y+ > 30) the turbulence dominates
very slowly in a logarithmic function[3].After considering these factors, the mesh must be
done considering the mesh quality and boundary conditions. The Ahmed body is a basic car
model, or a generic automobile body. The airflow around the Ahmed body, which was
initially described and characterized in Ahmed's experimental work captures the key flow
characteristics surrounding a car. Ahmed's body, despite its extremely straightforward
design, enables us to capture distinctive elements pertinent to bodies in the automotive
sector[3]
Methodology
Geometry:
The geometry is created based on the simplified aerodynamic body used by Ahmed
Body model. See Figure 1 for dimensions and Figure 2 for the geometry. The slant angle
(ϕ) is set to 25°. The body is placed in a wind tunnel (6m×5m×13.5m) in order to limit
the aerodynamic blockage effect.
Figure 4.1: Ahmed Body Geometry[3] ( units in mm)
Mesh:
The domain was discretized using mesh, as shown in Figure 3. The mesh was generated using edge
sizing for the circular shape and face sizing for the domain. In the inflation the first layer thickness
was 0.0000095 mm for the desired y+.
Fig 4.2. Mesh
Mesh sensitivity analysis:

The values of co-efficient of drag has been given for different values of the number elements
while discretization. This change of the result were not noticeable. So it can be said that the
solution is not mesh-sensitive
Mesh Sensitivity
140000
127403
120000
100000
92835
87162
80000
72347
60000 58274
40000 41625
38696 36327
20000
0.043739362 0.04355021 0.043716403 0.043745 0.04378 0.04348 0.043587 0.043593

0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Cd number of element
Fig 4.4 : Mesh Sensitivity Analysis.

Mesh quality
From the mesh metric quality it was found that the maximum Skewness of the mesh was 0.52264
and minimum Orthogonal Quality was 2.8594e-002. The skewness value and Orthogonal Quality
value indicates that the mesh was of good quality. Also the y+ value was plotted for the different
position and seen that the value is near about 1.So,it’s a correct mesh.
Figure 4.5: Wall y plus value vs distance
Boundary conditions:
Initial boundary conditions are given below:
Velocity 40 m/s
Viscosity 1.789×10-5kg/(m s)
Density 1.205 kg/m3
Reynolds number 2.8e+6
Gauge pressure 0 Pascal
Mathematical model
As it was a 2D simulation, SST k-ε(k-omega) model was used. The k-omega turbulence model is
one of the most often used models to reflect the influence of turbulent flow conditions. All the
impacts of turbulence are represented and it is a member of the Reynolds-averaged Navier- Stokes
(RANS) family of turbulence models. The equations for the respective model is given below[4]:
Results:
Aerodynamic Performance
When v=40 m/s and Re = 7.6e+5
Aerodynamic Forces
Lift Force (L): 290958.14 N
Drag Force (D): 27.761663N
Aerodynamic Coefficients
Lift Coefficient (Cl): 1596.8
Drag Coefficient (Cd): 0.043
When v=20 m/s and Re= 1.4e+6
Aerodynamic Forces
Lift Force (L): 2079185.7 N
Drag Force (D): 13.62 N
Velocity streamlines:
the velocity streamline plot illustrates the flow behavior around ahmed body. Near the stagnation
point, velocity accelerates around the nose section as indicated by yellow and red regions of
higher velocity. At the rear side of the ahmed body, there has no velocity streamline, which is the
low velocity zone.
Figure 4.6: Velocity contour for 40 m/s

Conclusion:
This study introduces the user how to use a simple CFD simulation. Under the specified flow
condition, the Ahmeded body experiences very little aerodynamic drag but a considerable lift,
according to the computed drag force and drag coefficient. When the velocity and Renolds number
is high the lift force increases. On the contrary, the drag force also increases. Understanding the
aerodynamic performance of the Ahmed body is aided by the pressure contour and velocity
streamline.The velocity is high at the nose side of the car model. The velocity streamline shows
that the velocity at different points of the car increases when the inlet velocity is high and same
goes for the pressure as well .The pressure decreases with the decreasing amount of inlet velocity
of the air.so, when the lifting force is high the velocity and pressure streamlines are also high. The
mesh is not mesh-sensitive, according to mesh sensitivity study. At the end the overall
aerodynamic performance of the ahmed body is studied with different boundary condition and also
for different discretization.
References:
[1] T. Senčić, V. Mrzljak, P. Blecich, and I. Bonefačić, “2D CFD simulation of water
injection strategies in a large marine engine,” J Mar Sci Eng, vol. 7, no. 9, Sep. 2019, doi:
10.3390/jmse7090296.
[2] M. J. T. Loutun et al., “2d cfd simulation study on the performance of various naca
airfoils,” CFD Letters, vol. 13, no. 4, pp. 38–50, Apr. 2021, doi: 10.37934/cfdl.13.4.3850.
[3] “Simscale .” Accessed: Sep. 16, 2024. [Online]. Available:
https://www.simscale.com/forum/t/what-is-y-yplus/82394
[4] “Menter, F. R. (1993), ‘Zonal Two Equation k-ω Turbulence Models for Aerodynamic
Flows’, AIAA Paper

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CFD is extensively utilized in various practical applications within

Keywords: Fluid Dynamics; Ahmed Body; Aerodynamics

Figure 4.1: Ahmed Body Geometry[3] ( units in mm)

Mesh sensitivity analysis:

0.043739362 0.04355021 0.043716403 0.043745 0.04378 0.04348 0.043587 0.043593

Fig 4.4 : Mesh Sensitivity Analysis.

Figure 4.5: Wall y plus value vs distance

Density 1.205 kg/m3

Reynolds number 2.8e+6

Gauge pressure 0 Pascal

Figure 4.6: Velocity contour for 40 m/s

Figure 4.7: Velocity contour for 20 m/s

Figure 4.8: Velocity contour for 10 m/s

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