Abstract
It is well known that platoons of closely spaced passenger cars can reduce their aerodynamic drag yielding substantial savings in energy consumption and reduced emissions as a system. Most published research has focused on platoons of identical vehicles which can arguably be justified by some evidence that geometric variety has little to no effect on the overall flow characteristics in platoons of three vehicles or more. It is known that much of the aerodynamic benefit from platooning is gained by the leading two cars, so operating as vehicle pairs could potentially achieve similar environmental benefits whilst addressing many of the practical challenges associated with the safe operation of long platoons on public roads. However, it has been reported that unlike long platoons, the effect of geometry and arrangement is critical if the drag reduction of a pair is to be optimised. This paper describes a parametric study based on three geometric variants of the popular DrivAer model with different combinations and spacings. It is confirmed that vehicle geometry crucially affects the results with the best combinations matching those of long platoons and others creating a net drag increase.
Highlights
The concept of passenger cars operating in low drag platoons is well established (e.g., [1,2]), but it has been recent developments in inter-vehicle communication and smart/autonomous vehicle (AV) capability that have brought the concept closer to reality.Almost all major manufacturers expect to bring such vehicles to the market within the few years [3,4] and the development of platooning has gained impetus by its potential to increase the range of electric vehicles that will eventually dominate the market [5].The automotive industry today is dominated by 14 car companies that control a combined total of 62 brands, each of which has a portfolio of vehicle designs with varying dimensions and geometries [6]
This paper presents new knowledge and understanding of the aerodynamic behaviour of vehicle pairs based on a parametric study of three afterbody geometries of the popular
The investigation focused on the DrivAer model published by the Institute of Aerodynamics and Fluid Mechanics at Technische Universität München (TUM) [17] that is based on merging the characteristic curves of two medium-sized cars, the Audi A4 and the BMW
Summary
The automotive industry today is dominated by 14 car companies that control a combined total of 62 brands, each of which has a portfolio of vehicle designs with varying dimensions and geometries [6]. This pool of continuously evolving vehicle designs introduces a large matrix of possibilities in terms of vehicle aerodynamic interactions when operated in a platoon. It has already been established that the potential aerodynamic gains are sensitive to vehicle geometry, the number of vehicles in the platoon, and the spacing between them, but our understanding of the detailed interactions remains inconclusive
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