Aerodynamic drag is a key issue within the effectivity of electrical automobiles and the efficiency functionality of sports activities vehicles and race vehicles, so Ford has invested on this functionality with a brand new rolling highway wind tunnel in Allen Park, Mich.
The brand new wind tunnel’s price ticket was reported by Motor Pattern to be $200 million, topping the $124 million of Honda’s related new wind tunnel we showcased beforehand.
One other superlative associated to “200” is the tunnel’s high velocity of 200 mph, which barely exceeds that of the Honda tunnel, based on Ford North American Wind Tunnels Supervisor, John Toth. Ford’s earlier tunnel dates to the late ‘90s.
Rolling Highway
The transferring floor of a rolling highway wind tunnel is sort of a large conveyor belt that the check automobile rolls on. That is vital as a result of a stationary floor interferes with the movement of air previous the underside of the automobile. A rolling highway offers extra correct knowledge when it comes to each wind drag and downforce
Ford’s new tunnel has two preparations. One has 5 belts, so every wheel will get its personal belt, and a bigger belt runs beneath the middle of the automobile. The opposite is a single massive belt, and that is the one that may run at speeds as quick as 200 mph.
The scale of the fan in Ford’s new wind tunnel is indicated by the engineer inspecting it.
Aerodynamic Frenemies
One factor that the Ford tunnel doesn’t do, that the brand new Honda tunnel does, is testing for wind noise. The sound insulation wanted for aeroacoustics testing compromises tunnels’ potential to do high-speed testing, and that was Ford’s focus for this facility, Toth stated. “We optimized the ability to do one factor and do it very effectively,” he noticed.
As a substitute of acoustic insulation, Ford lined its tunnel with epoxy to clean the movement of air, growing velocity and decreasing power consumption. The tunnel’s most energy is 5.3 megawatts, and it wants a 2 MW chiller when operating at that stage. However sweating particulars just like the epoxy coating have made the tunnel extra environment friendly than predicted. Expectations had been that it might want 4.2 to 4.3 MW to maintain 200 mph wind, however in apply, the tunnel can do this at simply 3.2 MW, based on Toth.
Energy for the tunnel comes from the general public utility grid, by means of Ford’s personal industrial 70-MW substation with high-tension transmission traces to the ability. Tapping into the 120,000-volt grid with its substation then sending 13,200-volt energy on the high-tension traces lets the tunnel run at excessive effectivity, Toth defined.
Honda Opens “World’s Most Superior” Wind Tunnel
His objective had been to make use of grid batteries too, however that didn’t work out. “We tried,” Toth recalled. “It was far dearer than I anticipated. I used to be unpleasantly shocked as a result of that was one of many issues we needed.”
The Ford and Honda wind tunnels had been each designed by Jacobs Engineering, and the similarities between them meant the 2 groups might examine notes as they labored to get their services prepared to make use of.
“We speak about our challenges,” Toth defined. “We assist one another out.”
That is Ford’s first rolling highway tunnel, so the corporate has been studying new points regarding that. “Once you convey up a model new facility there are tons of challenges,” Toth stated. “When it’s your first (rolling highway tunnel), there are further challenges.”
Engineers within the management room can management components comparable to wind velocity and angle.
Toth’s staff went by means of the gradual, methodical course of to kind every thing out getting the tunnel prepared, he stated. “There are actually 10,000 issues that must go proper for the ability to run and just one factor to go fallacious to close it down.”
Startup Complications
The tunnel’s start-up commissioning course of took six and a half months, with the ability operating 20 hours a day, seven days every week, because the engineers sought to calibrate it. Earlier than the staff can measure the drag of objects within the tunnel, they have to first set up a baseline of zero with an empty tunnel.
“You’re actually making an attempt to measure zero,” stated Toth. “It’s actually exhausting to do. I imply actually exhausting to do.”
A singular part of Ford’s tunnel is the presence of two movement traverses as a substitute of the standard single one. That is the put up that holds 40-percent scale fashions in place within the tunnel, and on this case, there are two of them. One is mild blue and one is darkish blue and so they’ve been dubbed “Henry” and “Clara,” after the corporate’s founder and his spouse.
They carry stress probes and elements for particle picture velocimetry for movement visualization. Henry and Clara transfer in all three axes with 1mm accuracy and might transfer in synchronization, which could possibly be used to mannequin a cross of 1 drafting Nascar inventory automobile on one other, for instance.
For full-size automobiles on the rolling highway, there’s a 40-foot-diameter turntable that rotates 30 levels in one-degree increments to check the automobile in varied yaw situations or in crosswinds.
Till this tunnel opened, Ford had to make use of the Windshear tunnel in Harmony, N.C. for rolling highway checks. Ford’s new tunnel is a era newer than that facility and advantages from a change in the way it controls boundary layer development.
Windshear’s tunnel strips off the boundary layer air on the nozzle and vents it exterior the check cell, however Ford’s tunnel returns it some other place within the airstream. “This helps preserve your static stress differential flat,” defined Toth. “The flatter that may be, the higher.”
Such particulars, together with the 200-mph high velocity and the twin movement traverses give the Ford tunnel a stable declare on the title of “most superior.” However in fact, there are others below building that may certainly elevate the bar.
