Car–puddle interaction
A 3D CFD simulation of a moving car crossing a puddle, focused on the interaction between four rotating tyres and the air–water interface.
- Industry
- Automotive
- Physics
- Multiphase flow - Fluid/structure interaction - Moving bodies
- Platform
- HPC cluster - 300 CPU cores
3D car-puddle interaction simulation with Fugu
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Objective
Analyse the flow generated when a moving vehicle crosses a puddle and demonstrate Fugu’s ability to combine multiphase physics with complex moving and rotating geometries.
Simulation setup
The three-dimensional model represents a car moving through a puddle with all four wheels rotating. The computation resolves the interaction between the moving solid surfaces and the deforming air–water interface, with close-up views centred on the tyre–water interaction.
- 3D domain discretised on a 256 × 256 × 256 grid
- 16,777,216 computational cells
- Multiphase air–water flow
- Fluid/structure interaction with four rotating wheels
- 300 CPU cores
- Runtime: 8 h 42 min
Results & insights
The simulation captures water displacement, free-surface deformation, interface breakup, and spray generated around the rotating tyres. These detailed flow structures provide insight into wet-road vehicle behaviour and the hydrodynamic mechanisms relevant to aquaplaning studies.