Design, Fabrication and Experimental Validation of an Open Channel Water Tunnel for Ahmed Body Aerodynamic Analysis using CFD and Experiments.

Abstract:- The present study focuses on the design, fabrication, and validation of an open channel water tunnel for analyzing flow behavior around an Ahmed body using both experimental and computational approaches. The Ahmed body, a standard benchmark in automotive aerodynamics, is used to investigate wake formation, flow separation, and drag characteristics. The experimental setup is designed to ensure uniform and steady flow conditions, enabling effective flow visualization through dye injection techniques. In parallel, Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations are performed using the k–ε turbulence model to predict velocity distribution, pressure contours, and aerodynamic coefficients. A comparative analysis between experimental observations and numerical results demonstrates good qualitative agreement, validating the effectiveness of the developed setup. The study highlights the feasibility of a low-cost water tunnel as a reliable tool for aerodynamic analysis and provides insights into bluff body flow behavior relevant to automotive applications..