Study and Analysis of External Drag Reduction Methods for Tractor-Trailer Trucks using 3D CFD
2022-01-1093
03/29/2022
- Event
- Content
- Heavy vehicles play a huge role in the national economy of a country and are responsible for the transportation of a major portion of goods across the terrain. In the United States alone, over 85% of the total value of goods are transported with the help of heavy vehicles. Despite the heavy reliance, these vehicles are not fuel-efficient and more than 40% of the engine’s power production is utilized in overcoming the vehicle aerodynamic drag at highway speeds. The present work explores drag reduction methods that could be used as an external aid for cargo trailer trucks. The paper focuses on 3D CFD analysis of different boat-tail designs that could be used to reduce aerodynamic drag on trailers. The boat tails analysed has been optimised in coherence with standard legal norms for European and US highways. It has been found and established that a truncated boat tail works as a better drag reduction measure than a full or completely inflated boat tail. The commercial code of Simerics MP® has been used to mesh and analyse the computational domain comprising of different trailer trucks with and without the boat tail. A significant drag reduction of approximately 20% has been observed with an optimized truncated boat tail in a system-level situation of cargo trailer trucks running at a highway speed of 120 kmph.
- Citation
- Varshney, A., Khandagale, V., and Saha, R., "Study and Analysis of External Drag Reduction Methods for Tractor-Trailer Trucks using 3D CFD," SAE Technical Paper 2022-01-1093, 2022, .