Abstract
The potential energy-saving benefit for vehicles when travelling in a ‘platoon’ formation results from the reduction in total aerodynamic drag which may result from the interaction of bluff bodies in close-proximity. Early investigations of platooning, prompted by problems of congestion, had shown the potential for drag reduction but was not pursued. More recently, technologies developed for connected-autonomous vehicle control have provided a renewed interest in platooning particularly within the commercial vehicle industry. To date, most aerodynamics-based considerations of platooning have been conducted to assess the sensitivity of drag-saving to vehicle spacing and were based on formations of identically shaped constituents. In this study, the interest was the sensitivity of drag-saving to the shape of the individual platoon constituents. A new reference car, the Resnick model, was specially designed to include front and rear-end add-on sections to make distinct changes in profile form and simulate large-scale body morphing. The results of wind tunnel tests on small-scale models suggested that current trends in low-drag styling may not provide the ideal shape for platoon constituent members and that optimised forms are likely to be dependent upon position in the platoon.
Highlights
National Transport Design Centre, Institute for Future Transport and Cities, Coventry University, Priory Street, Citation: Le Good, G.; Resnick, M.; Abstract: The potential energy-saving benefit for vehicles when travelling in a ‘platoon’ formation results from the reduction in total aerodynamic drag which may result from the interaction of bluff bodies in close-proximity
For road-going vehicles, research into the organized or deliberate positioning of vehicles in close-proximity to gain an aerodynamic advantage seems to have been the subject of comparatively limited publications, with the most numerous being for heavy goods vehicles
The main premise behind the investigation described in this paper was that: the flow regimes produced by conventionally optimised low-drag passenger cars may not yield drag reductions when operating in the close-proximity situation of platooning
Summary
National Transport Design Centre, Institute for Future Transport and Cities, Coventry University, Priory Street, Citation: Le Good, G.; Resnick, M.; Abstract: The potential energy-saving benefit for vehicles when travelling in a ‘platoon’ formation results from the reduction in total aerodynamic drag which may result from the interaction of bluff bodies in close-proximity. Most aerodynamics-based considerations of platooning have been conducted to assess the sensitivity of drag-saving to vehicle spacing and were based on formations of identically shaped constituents. Not as an automotive application, Hoerner [4], illustrated and numerically compared the aerodynamic drag of two -sized cylinders and of two thin symmetrical low-drag aerofoil sections in tandem. The tests on the cylinders resulted in significant drag reductions for both leading and trailing bodies up to an equivalent spacing of three cylinder diameters. The fact that the drag of the first section is decreased is explained by increased static pressure between the two struts pushing the first one forward, so to speak.”
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