Effects of Tire Attributes on the Aerodynamic Performance of a Realisitic Car-Tire Assembly and the Sensitivity Analysis to Understand the Impact of the Rim Protector

The effect of that the tire has on the overall aerodynamic drag in a car-tire assembly has been studied and deemed considerable from past studies. It has been shown that to know how tire parameters affect the drag on the car-tire assembly, it is important to understand how the vehicle body and the tires influence the flow structures. Previous studies have focused on the tire attributes that have some impact on the aerodynamic performance of the vehicle. These tire attributes, however, haven't been studied to the extent where one can get a better understanding of the impact of each of these attributes. This paper studies the impact that specific tire attributes have on the overall aerodynamic drag on the vehicle based on a thorough and systematic sensitivity study. The effect of tire attributes in a vehicle assembly as well as the sensitivity study of a rim protector on a standalone tire is conducted. This helps in better understanding the flow structures around the car body and around the tire for the improvement in the aerodynamic performance of the vehicle.

This is a two-part study. One component of this study is a parametric sensitivity analysis of a tire in a tire – vehicle assembly. The other component is a parametric sensitivity analysis of the rim protector design on a standalone tire.