A Numerical Study on Aerodynamic Drag Reduction of an Electric Vehicle = a concept for driving range extension

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

As the emissions from the IC engine vehicles contribute to the increase of gases linked to climate change and human ill health, zero emission vehicles are one of the approaches under focus and hoped to reduce the ever increasing pollutants in the globe. In this regard, electric car is a topic of interest and expected to be a future car. Currently the driving range of the electric vehicles is the main challenge. With the air resistance exerted on a driven vehicle being the largest energy consuming attribute, this concept study is conducted on aerodynamic drug reduction of the electric truck.
In this numerical study, the open and closed frontal panel of the electric vehicle has been studied to see its effect on the aerodynamic resistance of the model vehicle using the extended (k-ε) turbulent model proposed by Chen-Kim (1987). As aerodynamic drag has significant impact on power consumption of electric vehicles especially at high speed, finding all possible ways to reduce the aerodynamic drag has paramount importance on the development process of an electric vehicle.
From the study, it was found that the drag factor (CD<SUP>*</SUP>A) of the model vehicles with 6.76% and 9.42% opened the frontal area, showed a drag reduction of 4.56% and 7.2% respectively compared to the closed front panel model vehicle at 100㎞/h. It means that the total drag of the vehicle with the open panel grill is reduced and it should have serious effect on energy savings of the model electric vehicle and in extending the driving range with the same size battery.

목차 (Table of Contents)

• Abstract
• 1. INTRODUCTION
• 2. ANALYTICAL THEORY
• 3. NUMERICAL MODELS
• 4. NUMERICAL SCHEME AND BOUNDARY CONDITION
• 5. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
• 6. CONCLUSION AND FUTURE WORK
• References