Reconstruction Of Time-Averaged 3D Pressure Fields In The Wake Of An Ahmed Body With Pressure From PIV

Abstract

In this contribution, we present and compare time-averaged pressure fields reconstructed from scanned stereoscopic 2D3C-PIV data and volumetric 3D-PTV data (Shake-The-Box) with classic pointwise surface pressure tap measurements. Measurements were conducted in the near-wake region of an one-quarter scaled Ahmed body (Ahmed 1984) with 25° slant angle at height-based Reynolds numbers of Re = 5.06 · 10^4 and 1.13 · 10^5, respectively, i.e. free-stream velocities of 10.5 m/s and 23.5 m/s. The measurements are a continuation of previous measurements (Gericke et al. 2023, Ladwig et al. 2023) with a focus on the more complex flow topology concerning the wake flow structure. Measurements were conducted in a low-speed wind tunnel of Göttinger design with a semi-closed test section at Bochum University of Applied Sciences. The investigated flow field in the near wake region is dominantly characterized by a strongly three-dimensional flow field based on a mutually influenced vortex system in the wake, which challenges the utilized pressure reconstruction algorithm based on the Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equations. The present study addresses challenges in pressure reconstruction due to the presence of highly transient rotational and shearing flow in the context of a practical application. The results show good agreement between reconstructed PIV/PTV-based pressure fields and reference pressure measurements using classic wall pressure measurements. The global characteristics of the pressure distributions are correctly reproduced. The agreement is particularly good in areas of unidirectional flow and local smaller velocity gradients. In shear zones as well as separation and, e.g., recirculation areas, larger deviations are clearly visible, as the velocity gradients present near the surface are not sufficiently captured at all.