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Modern aerodynamic Class 8 freight tractors can improve vehicle freight efficiency and fuel economy versus older traditional style tractors when pulling Canadian style A- or B-Train double trailer long combination vehicles (LCV's) at highway speeds. This paper compares the aerodynamic performance of a current generation aerodynamic tractor with several freight hauling configurations through computational fluid dynamics evaluations using the Lattice-Boltzmann methodology. The configurations investigated include the tractor hauling a standard 53′ trailer, a platooning configuration with a 30′ separation distance, and an A-Train configuration including two 48′ trailers connected with a dolly converter. The study demonstrates CFD's capability of evaluating extremely long vehicle combinations that might be difficult to accomplish in traditional wind tunnels due to size limitations.

North American on-highway tractor fuel efficiency has evolved significantly from its 1950’s roots to today’s Department of Energy SuperTruck prototypes and current Original Equipment Manufacturer production models. Innovating tomorrow’s Environmental Protection Agency Green House Gas compliant and economically efficient designs require understanding and manipulating the complex interactions between multiple systems in the context of both how the vehicles are formally evaluated and how and where they are actually used. This SAE L. Ray Buckendale Lecture paper provides an in depth overview of fuel economy and freight efficiency evaluation methods, their contexts and limitations, especially with respect to comparisons between the different methods.