Improving vehicle aerodynamics for better

energy efficiency
Sinia Krajnovi
Applied Mechanics, Vehicle Aerodynamics Laboratory, Chalmers

Passenger vehicles

Trains

Commercial vehicles

Aerodynamic drag
Skin friction drag
Flow

High pressure

Net aerodynamic force

Low pressure

1
D = C D A U 2
2
Drag coefficient
Depends on shape

Area of cross-section

Dynamic
pressure

Aerodynamic drag consumes between 35%- 65 % of

energy at higway speeds

Mccallan, 2002

Different between North America and Europe

Ways of reducing fuel consumption by

reducing aerodynamic drag
Reducing speed is very efficient

Property of driving cycle, 0.5 0.7

C D S 3U
FuelConsumption

=
+
+
FuelConsumption
S
U
CD
Reduce speed (factor of 3)
Change in shape

Reduce vehicle cross-section

Aerodynamic shape optimization

Drag decrease by 9 %

Flow Control

Platooning

Potential for improvement (trains) (Source

Orellano and Sperling, 2009)
Typical drag distribution.

Potential for improvement.

The potential to reduce the drag of regional trains is around 2025%. This drag would lead to energy reductions of 6-8%.

There is no improvement without understanding of the flow physics

Originally, the styling modell with the back angle of 45 degrees. The drag
coefficient was 0.40.
Reduction of slant angle to 30 deg. lead to a sudden 10 % increase in drag.

Improvement of the vehicles design

using shape optimization
Mesh Generation

Optimization

ORIGINAL DESIGN

Mesh Deformation
GEOMETRY
MODIFICATION

Original

Optimized

CFD Simulation

Passive flow control using impinging devices

Position
of
separati
on

Passive flow control devices are simple to use but cannot addapt to flow condition.

Influence of the flow control on the flow over

the slant and in the near wake
Drag reduction of 10 %

Natural flow

Controled flow

Flow control of trailing vortices on A-pillar

Natural flow

Suction

Krajnovic et al., Int. Journal of Flow Contro

2011

Flow control using moving surface boundary layer control

(Han and Krajnovic, Turbulence, Flow and Combustion, 2013.)

(a)
Experimental results
show drag reduction
up to 35%. (Modi
1992)

(b)

The geometry of the cube (a), the computational domain (b) .

(a)

(b)

The time-averaged streamlines for non-rotating case (a) and rotating case (b) in the case
of 300 yaw angle, top view in the middle plane of the cube.

Improvement by flow control

Passive flow control

Bombardier Contessa (resundstget) used

for regional traffic in Sweden. Bad
aerodynamic shaping

Research question: Can we apply similar types of

nozzles on resundstget to reduce the drag and?
We investigate by simulating the flow around a
simplified model of the train. Complex flow
simulation to do accurately.

Corner nozzles on the rear, change

flow and reduce drag up to 15%
~ 5% fuel savings for a truck.
[1] M. Tsai, Study of using corner
nozzles to reduce the drag of a
truck

Improvement by flow control (Passive flow control)

On road tests shows fuel savings of around 10% on

tractor-trailers
Over-the-Road Tests of Sealed Aft Cavities on
Tractor Trailers, K. Grover and K. D. Visse, SAE 2006
train.

Another strategy is to place an cavity at the base of the

On a real train a mechanical construction must be designed so
that the cavity can be folded when the train changes direction.
J. sth and S. Krajnovi. Simulations of flow around a simplified train model with a
drag reducing device using Partially Averaged Navier-Stokes. Conference on Modelling
Fluid Flow (CMFF12), The 15th International Conference on Fluid Flow Technologies.
Budapest, Hungary, 4-7 September, 2012

Drag reduction ~10%

Improvement by flow control -Active flow control

The idea

The experiment

The explanation

Natural flow

Controled flow

Active and passive flow control (El-Alti M., Kjellgren P. and

Davidson L.)

Prototype, 5% fuel reduction on road

test comparing AFC to NO AFC on
the same configuration.

Cooperation with VOLVO 3P and

SKAB

Improvement of energy efficiency of regional and

freight trains
Large potential for improvement of energy efficiency.
Many existing trains with poor aerodynamic performance.
Little knowledge about these flows.

Regional trains
5/17/2013

Freight trains

Where are we and what more is needed to

achive the enviremental goals?
Research about flow control techniques is promising. Research is ongoing
in the road sector but much can be done in the rail transports too.
Commercial vehicles and trains are systems and improvement of
aerodynamic properties requires the control on the entire system.
It is important to keep in mind the whole picture.

New technologies and areas of research

Education is important.

Experimental results
show drag reduction
up to 35%. (Modi
1992)