Roof Box Shape Streamline Adaptation and the Impact towards Fuel Consumption

M.F Abdul Latif,M.Z.A Rashid,M.A Azhari,M.N Othman,M.N Hashim,M.A.B Abdullah,M.E Muhammad Suandi,M.F Ghazali,S.Z Abd Rahim,M.N Mat Saad

doi:10.1051/matecconf/20179701089

Abstract

The fuel price hike is currently a sensational national issue in Malaysia. Since the rationalization of fuel subsidies many were affected especially the middle income family. Vehicle aerodynamic were directly related to the fuel consumption, were extra frontal area result a higher drag force hence higher fuel consumption. Roof box were among the largest contributor to the extra drag, thus the roof box shape rationalization were prominent to reduce the extra drag. The idea of adopting water drop shape to the roof box design shows prominent result. The roof box has been simulated using MIRA virtual wind tunnel modelling via commercial computational fluid dynamic (CFD) package. This streamline shape drastically reduce the drag force by 34% resulting to a 1.7% fuel saving compare to the conventional boxy roof box. This is an effort to reduce the carbon foot print for a sustainable green world.

Highlights

The effort of drag reduction mainly focused on the design of the vehicle where designer added an aerodynamic flavour to their car design right after the First World War [1]
The box definitely add up extra surface area that face the wind direction and directly affected the total drag of the vehicle which likely contribute to an extra fuel consumption [3]
Elaborating the 2.27% increase of total fuel consumption by taking the average fuel price in Malaysia between year 2013 to 2016 which is about Malaysian Ringgit (RM) 2.00 per litter of fuel; A 2.0 litter engine MPV consume about 50 L of fuel a week for average daily drive of 20 km

Summary

Introduction

The effort of drag reduction mainly focused on the design of the vehicle where designer added an aerodynamic flavour to their car design right after the First World War [1]. The box definitely add up extra surface area that face the wind direction and directly affected the total drag of the vehicle which likely contribute to an extra fuel consumption [3]. Somehow an idea of adopting streamlined shape like water drop shape to the roof box design were less explored. A typical multi-purpose vehicle has a drag coefficient around 0.45, installation of roof box increase the total drag from 25% to 28%. These figure contribute to 2.27% of total fuel consumption calculated using the formula adapted by Zambri Harun [8]. This paper focused on the commonly used roof box design in Malaysia which is for luggage storage

Roof box modelling

Pre-processing Configuration

Findings

Result and discussion

Conclusion