Abstract
Aerodynamic of commercial trucks has been extensively studied due to their impact on fuel efficiency; reducing consumption is one of the most important and challenging issues for the trucking industry. In this paper, several Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) simulations are performed to evaluate the drag of a standard car carrier and its different modifications. Therefore, several covers, which act as aerodynamic devices, are tested to determine their effectiveness in fuel consumption. The study compares the drag coefficients, velocity vectors, pressure contours, and turbulence kinetic energy of different fairing configurations. The results show that, although all covers reduce the drag coefficient compared to the conventional car carrier, two of them have significant drag reductions.
Highlights
The study of aerodynamic drag, fuel consumption and gas emissions from heavy trucks are very important in the automotive industry
AERODYNAMIC ANALYSIS The drag coefficient of each car carrier configuration is shown in Table 4, where the percentage reduction with respect to the baseline configuration is reported
configuration 2 (C2) has a low drag reduction because it only prevents recirculation of flow entering the sides of the trailer; it is noted that the main drag source is the car carrier over the tractor roof
Summary
The study of aerodynamic drag, fuel consumption and gas emissions from heavy trucks are very important in the automotive industry. Fuel consumption caused by aerodynamic drag on heavy vehicles can vary widely because it is affected by different factors such as truck type, terrain topography, and road conditions. The different configurations of the car carrier are discussed below, as well as the computational domain, grid characteristics, boundary conditions and turbulence model.
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