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Technical Paper

Effects of Vehicle Numbers and Vehicle Types on Drag Reduction of Platoons with Different Front-Edge Radius

2023-04-11
2023-01-0951
The platoon of intelligent vehicles can significantly reduce the aerodynamic drag, which has broad development prospects. This research numerically studies the effect of Reynolds number (Re = 3.32×105 to 19.94×105), the vehicle numbers (3-, 5-, 8-vehicle), and vehicle types (fastback, notchback, and squareback) on the platoon drag reduction with three different front-edge radius (R*=R/W×100 = 9.36, 4.68 and 2.34). The results show that when the Reynolds number is greater than 9.97×105, the drag coefficient ratio CD/CDi (CDi is the drag coefficient of the isolated vehicle) of each vehicle in the platoon is less affected by the Reynolds number. When R*=9.36, the averaged CD/CDi of the fastback platoon (even above 1) is higher than that of both the notchback platoon and the squareback platoon without front-edge separation at the leading vehicle due to the weakest shielding effect on the following car resulting from the prominent downwash wake.
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