Aero Drag Improvement Study on Large Commercial Vehicles Using CFD Lead Approach 2021-26-0424

Nowadays, E- commerce and logistics business model is booming in India with road transport as a major mode of delivery system using containers. As competition in such business are on rise, different ways of improving profit margins are being continuously evolved. One such scenario is to look at reducing transportation cost while reducing fuel consumption. Traditionally, aero dynamics of commercial vehicles have never been in focus during their product development although literature shows major part of total fuel energy is consumed in overcoming aerodynamic drag at and above 60 kmph in case of large commercial vehicle. Hence improving vehicle exterior aerodynamic performance gives opportunity to reduce fuel consumption and thereby business profitability. Also byproduct of this improvement is reduced emissions and meeting regulatory requirements. To bring this into reality, vehicle manufacturers are looking at different opportunities to reduce aero drag and one such method that are been worked upon are add-on aero kits on vehicle, container or on trailer while keeping base styling same.

As a part of this paper, large commercial vehicle (Tractor Trailer version) is chosen for which aerodynamic assessment is carried out. To evaluate the aerodynamic drag, CFD simulations are carried out using CFD commercial package. Different add-on options are simulated and its effect on exterior aerodynamic drag is analyzed and presented. Further in this paper, detailed analysis of flow around vehicle is carried out to get deep insight on aerodynamics of commercial vehicle.