AERODYNAMIC CHANGES WHEN TWO VEHICLES ARE IN PROXIMITY TO EACH OTHER

Aerodynamic of the fluid surrounding twovehicle changes when the vehicles are
in proximity to each other, whether when overtaking, or moving back-to-back, or sideby-
side from the same or opposite direction. Usually when the cars are moving near
eachother, aerodynamic changes, especially the wake that forms around the vehicle can
create force variation on the vehicle, causing sometimes road accidents. For the Final
Year Project (FYP), the aerodynamic changes will be studied on model vehicle using a
wind tunnel equipped with the necessary measuring equipment. The study is focusing on
the effects ofthe wake ofa vehicle to another vehicle in tailing position (back-to-back)',
where the experiment is done using windtunnel and scaled vehicle models. The vehicle
model used is a scaled model of a kelisa car. The results of the experiment show that
there are certain ranges of distance between the two cars, where the drag force, as a
result of the aerodynamic changes, increase and decrease. These distance ranges are
where a driver should or should notbewhen tailing another vehicle onthe road.