Passenger car fuel consumption is a constant concern for automotive companies and the contribution to fuel consumption from aerodynamics is well known. Several studies have been published on the aerodynamics of wheels. One area of wheel aerodynamics discussed in some of these earlier works is the so-called ventilation resistance.This study investigates ventilation resistance on a number of 17 inch rims, in the Volvo Cars Aerodynamic Wind Tunnel. The ventilation resistance was measured using a custom-built suspension with a tractive force measurement system installed in the Wheel Drive Units (WDUs). The study aims at identifying wheel design factors that have significant effect on the ventilation resistance for the investigated wheel size.The results show that it was possible to measure similar power requirements to rotate the wheels as was found in previous works. The magnitude of the measured ventilation resistance confirms the conclusion that this effect should be taken into account when designing a wheel.It was found that some of the rim design factors have greater influences on the ventilation resistance than others. It was also shown that one of the investigated rims had lower ventilation resistance than measured for the fully-covered wheel configuration.

The brake system is a critical component for any passenger vehicle as its task is to convert the kinetic and potential energy of the vehicle into heat, allowing the vehicle to stop. Heat energy generated must be dissipated into the surroundings in order to prevent brake overheating. Traditionally, a lot of experimental testing is performed to ensure correct brake operation under all possible load scenarios. However, with the development of simulation techniques, many vehicle manufacturers today are looking into partially or completely replacing physical experiments by virtual testing. Such a transition has several substantial benefits, but simultaneously a lot of challenges and limitations need to be addressed and understood for reliable and accurate simulation results. This paper summarizes many of such challenges, discusses the effects that can and cannot be captured, and gives a broader picture of the issues faced when conducting numerical brake cooling simulations.

There are a number of numerical and experimental studies of the aerodynamic performance of wheels that have been published. They show that wheels and wheel-housing flows are responsible for a substantial part of the total aerodynamic drag on passenger vehicles. Previous investigations have also shown that aerodynamic resistance moment acting on rotating wheels, sometimes referred to as ventilation resistance or ventilation torque is a significant contributor to the total aerodynamic resistance of the vehicle; therefore it should not be neglected when designing the wheel-housing area.This work presents a numerical study of the wheel ventilation resistance moment and factors that affect it, using computational fluid dynamics (CFD). It is demonstrated how pressure and shear forces acting on different rotating parts of the wheel affect the ventilation torque. It is also shown how a simple change of rim design can lead to a significant decrease in power consumption of the vehicle. A way of introducing ventilation torque into the driving resistance equation is discussed.The results show that it is possible to assess ventilation resistance moment using CFD. It is demonstrated that brake discs have almost negligible ventilation torque, while the contribution of rims and tyres may vary depending on the rim design used and the velocity of the vehicle. It is also shown that for the designs investigated the equivalent ventilation force has a second order dependency on the vehicle velocity which allows an introduction of a ventilation resistance coefficient CD(vent) that is independent of velocity.