Approach to an iteratively coupled thermal and aerodynamic design process for production cars

In the present paper an iteratively coupled aerodynamic and thermal design process is proposed. The aerodynamic part of the simulation is an incompressible DES solver, extended by a scalar temperature equation. The aim of this segregated step is to predict the aerodynamic forces on the car and calculate heat transfer coefficients. The latter are transferred to a thermal solver and heat radiation and conduction are calculated. With this method limit temperatures and cooling curves can be simulated. First results for a cube test case are presented and a experimental validation basis for a production car is given for later simulations.