Aerodynamic Simulations of a Class 8 Heavy Truck: Comparison to Wind Tunnel Results and Investigation of Blockage Influences 2007-01-4295
The accuracy of the Lattice-Boltzmann based simulation method for prediction of aerodynamic drag on a heavy truck was evaluated by comparing results to twenty percent scale model wind tunnel measurements from the University of Washington Aeronautical Laboratory (UWAL). A detailed preproduction Kenworth T2000 tractor trailer was used as the scale model. The results include a comparison of normalized drag between simulation and wind tunnel as well as percentage drag change with the addition of a radius to the rear edge of the trailer. Significant effort was involved to model all of the wind tunnel details affecting the tractor-trailer drag. These are discussed along with the results of additional simulations which were performed to study the impact of the UWAL tunnel geometry relative to a tunnel with the same blockage and constant cross-sectional area, and a case with negligible blockage. Advanced post-processing of the simulation results was used to study the drag contribution from the trailer features including underbody, rear bumper, and bogie wheel assembly.
Citation: Horrigan, K., Duncan, B., Sivakumar, P., Gupta, A. et al., "Aerodynamic Simulations of a Class 8 Heavy Truck: Comparison to Wind Tunnel Results and Investigation of Blockage Influences," SAE Technical Paper 2007-01-4295, 2007, https://doi.org/10.4271/2007-01-4295. Download Citation
Author(s):
Kevin Horrigan, Brad Duncan, Pradeep Sivakumar, Anurag Gupta, Alec Wong
Affiliated:
Exa Corporation, Kenworth Truck Company
Pages: 14
Event:
SAE 2007 Commercial Vehicle Engineering Congress & Exhibition
ISSN:
0148-7191
e-ISSN:
2688-3627
Also in:
SAE 2007 Transactions Journal of Commercial Vehicles-V116-2
Related Topics:
Scale models
Heavy trucks
Wind tunnel tests
Drag
Simulation and modeling
Aerodynamics
Trailers
Assembling
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