Wake Flow Characteristics around the Side Mirror of a Passenger Car

승용차 외장측면거울 주위의 유동 특성

In order to investigate the vortex body frame interaction around the side mirror of a passenger car, velocity vector fields in the wake, pressure distributions and boundary layer flows over both the mirror surface and the mirror housing, have been measured by several experimental tools. It was resulted that only within an half downstream distance of the mirror span there appears the recirculation zone, and also found that vortex trail towards to the driver side window between A and B pillars, making the acoustic noise and vibration. Wake vortex rolls up after this recirculating zone and makes the trail of the vortex center towards the driver side window, which was also confirmed by measurements of wake velocity vectors in the vertical sections of the trail and visualization over the side mirror surfaces as well. It was also observed that total pressure distribution over the mirror surface has the minimum peak near the lower tip region which can be considered as the origin of the vortex center. It can be concluded that the geometrical modification of the lower tip and the upper root area of the mirror housing is the key to control the wake vortex.