Impact of relative position vehicle-wind blower in a roller test bench under climatic chamber

In terms of energy efficiency and exhaust emissions control, an appropriate design of cooling systems of climatic chambers destined to vehicle certification and/or perform scientific research is becoming increasingly important. European vehicle emissions certification (New European Driving Cycle, NEDC) establishes the position of the wind-simulation blower at 200 mm above floor level. This height is fixed and kept constant independently of the vehicle tested. The position of the blower with respect to the vehicle can modify the external forced convection under the car, where after-treatment devices are located. Consequently, the performance of such devices could be modified and emission results during the certification cycle could be non-representative of real-world driving conditions. The aim of this work is to study the influence of different wind blower-vehicle relative heights on the air velocity and temperature profiles under the car by means of a simple computational fluid dynamics (CFD) approach. A steady state three-dimensional CFD model was developed and applied to the estimation of the air velocity and temperature profiles inside of a climatic chamber equipped with a vehicle roller (chassis dyno) test bench. The simulations reproduce one steady-state condition from NEDC, specifically the EU17 mode (120 km/h, maximum velocity during the cycle). The cool air propelling temperature was 20 degrees C (minimum temperature in the NEDC range). Simulations were performed employing the Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) approach with the realizable k-epsilon model to provide closure. Air velocity and air temperature distributions for the cases of study are shown. Results show that the effect of relative vertical position between the wind simulation blower and the vehicle on the temperature of the air flow below the vehicle tested is not negligible. This suggests revising the certification cycle in order to adapt the position of the air blower according to the height of the vehicle. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.