This conference paper was submitted for presentation at the NAFEMS World Congress 2025, held in Salzburg, Austria from May 19–22, 2025.

Abstract

Cross-wind aerodynamic analysis for two wheelers becomes important from the stability stand point both during the vehicle ride as well as in parked condition. In the present work we consider the effect of cross-wind forces on two design variants of the Qargos Electric cargo scooter. The first design has a higher cargo capacity but is limited to one rider and the second variant has a limited cargo capacity but can have a rider and pillion. In both these designs, the front cargo compartment, situated between the two wheels and enclosed within body panels, increases the vehicle's surface area, potentially having an impact of crosswind forces on the scooter and rider(s). Understanding the aerodynamic impact is crucial to ensure the scooter's safety and rider comfort. In the present work we study the effect of cross-wind the stability of the two vehicle variants. In addition to estimating crosswind forces using CFD analysis, we also capture the forces due to wind on a center stand parked vehicle. This study is important from the perspective of fragile cargo getting damaged due to vehicle toppling. Cross-wind aerodynamic analysis using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) can be both time and cost saving strategy for 2 wheeler vehicle developers. Wind tunnel testing can be prohibitively expensive and in many cases may not have a wide enough cross-section to accommodate a full two wheeler including the mannequin and would have to resort to using scaled models. The vehicle can be subjected to cross wind velocities due to the terrain in some instances and due to the passage of a large truck on a high way in most other cases. Although the extreme case of the vehicle rider falling due to cross-wind is rare and few, the short instability of being pushed towards one side can have a scary and de-stabilizing effect on the rider. Since, aerodynamic forces typically scale with the square of velocities, one strategy the rider could adapt would be to reduce the vehicle speeds drastically which may not always be a good idea when driving on freeways. Due to the unique configuration of the present vehicle, we expect the side forces to be significant in magnitude as the side section view shows a fully covered space. There are numerous literature available that deals with both experimental research and Numerical studies of bicycles with rider, Motor cyclists, scooters, cars and trucks. In all these cases, the main reason for studies is indicated by rider discomfort in the case of two wheelers and steering corrections needed in the case of 4 wheelers. The first part of the study includes studying the effect of crosswind for two vehicle designs including the rider(s). RANS approach is utilized the present study with SST '“KW model. The second part of the study is about a vehicle parked on its center stand and subject to high wind velocities typically encountered during windy days. This study becomes important from the perspective of the nature of cargo. In some cases the cargo could be some fragile material that could be damaged should the vehicle topple. The present study is focused on these two aspects of the electric cargo scooter.