Automobile Wakes

Aeroprobe's omniprobe is perfeclty suited to explore the wakes of automobiles, because it can measure both forward and reverersed flow. In the Figure below is shown a full-size automobile in the GIE-SAA wind tunnel which is located in St. Cyr, France. This tunnel serves French automobile manufactureres like Renault, Peugot and Citroen.

Data were collected along a plane normal to the free strean, and in the wake of the automobile using a three-probe rake. This allowed the wind tunnel time to be cut by a factor of 3. The Drag Plane was traversed covering an area larger than the projection of the automobile to this plane, and thus captured most of the distrubances generated by it. One of the omniprobes mounted on the traversing bracket is shown in the photograph.

The following Figure presents the results obtained with the omnirake. The results indicate the extent of the low-speed flow, as well as the presence of axial vorices, which are similar in character to delta-wing tip vortices.