A numerical investigation of the flow around a motorbike when subjected to crosswinds

Danielle Fintelman, Hassan Hemida, Mark Sterling, Francois-Xavier Li

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

11 Citations (Scopus)
756 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Crosswinds have the potential to influence the stability and therefore the safety of a motorbike rider. Numerical computations using both Delayed Detached Eddy Simulations (DDES) and Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) were employed to investigate the flow around a motorbike subjected to crosswinds with yaw angles of 15, 30, 60 and 90 degrees. The Reynolds number was 2.2 million, based on the crosswind velocity and the height of the rider from the ground. The aerodynamic force coefficients and flow structures around the motorbike and rider were obtained and analysed. Although both DDES and RANS provided comparable overall aerodynamic forces, RANS failed to predict both the DDES surface pressures at the separation regions and location and size of the main circulation region. The DDES results showed that the drag coefficients decrease with increasing yaw angles, while the side force coefficients significantly increase. It was found that increasing yaw angles resulted in stronger vortex shedding around the wind shield and helmet.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)528-542
Number of pages15
JournalJournal of Engineering Applications of Computational Fluid Mechanics
Volume9
Issue number1
Early online date11 Sept 2015
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2015

Keywords

  • Motorbike
  • Crosswinds
  • DDES
  • RANS
  • Aerodynamic forces
  • Flow structures

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Engineering(all)

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