Regardless of what transpires in the coming weeks and months as the new administration in Washington evaluates the fate of regulations, automakers like Ford are going to have to make their products more fuel efficient. Even if corporate average fuel economy rules are relaxed, major automakers still need to compete in global markets where efficiency remains an issue. To that end, Ford and its competitors are continuing to invest in technologies to help them reduce energy consumption. The latest project from Ford is the construction of a new advanced rolling road wind tunnel.
Wind tunnels aren't a new concept by any means, with the first enclosed examples dating back to the 1870s. The Wright brothers built a wind tunnel that helped them design their original Flyer. Automakers have been making widespread use of wind tunnels since at least the 1970s.
By now, automakers have picked off most of the low-hanging fruit when it comes to reducing aerodynamic drag. Additional gains are going to require an ever more realistic simulation of what is happening when a vehicle drives down the road. One of the key flaws in traditional wind tunnels is the fact that wheels aren't rotating and the bottom of the car isn't moving relative to the “road” surface it sits on.
Rotating wheels generate very different turbulence effects from those that are static and the close proximity of the bottom of the car to the road also has a significant impact on the test results. Race engineers recognized this decades ago. In the 1980s Formula 1 teams began building tunnels with moving belts that their aerodynamic models ride on to simulate the road surface under the car.
Most of these tunnels could only accommodate 40% or half-scale models of the cars. In 2008, NASCAR team owner Gene Haas opened the first full-scale rolling road tunnel in North America. Operated by his company Windshear Inc. the tunnel in Concord, North Carolina has been used by many race teams and automakers to test vehicles at speeds up to 180 mph.
Later this year, Ford will start construction of a new aerodynamic test facility next door to its existing lab in Allen Park, Mich. The new lab will utilize a cartridge system that allows for quick changes between two different types of road surfaces. Most rolling road tunnels have a single belt system where all four wheels roll on the same surface. The Ford single belt system will support speeds of up to 200 mph.
The second system will utilize five belts, one smaller belt for each wheel and a larger central belt running under the vehicle's center. This can be used to simulate varying road conditions and speeds up to 155 mph. The tunnel chambers will be sized to accommodate vehicles as large as Ford's Super Duty pickup trucks.
In addition to the wind tunnel, the lab will also get a climatic test cell to evaluate vehicle systems at temperatures that range from -40 degrees Fahrenheit to 140 degrees.
As vehicles continue to get more efficient, each incremental improvement becomes more difficult to achieve so any errors in the simulation process have a greater impact. Ford is hoping that the upgraded labs will provide a more accurate picture of what to expect when vehicles hit the road for testing and production so that they don't need to make as many changes later in the process.
The total investment in the new test facility will be $200 million.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/samabuelsamid/2017/02/15/ford-to-construct-new-rolling-road-wind-tunnel-near-michigan-headquarters/
2017-02-15T05:01:00+00:00