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Technical Paper

DOE's Effort to Reduce Truck Aerodynamic Drag Through Joint Experiments and Computations

2005-11-01
2005-01-3511
At 70 miles per hour, overcoming aerodynamic drag represents about 65% of the total energy expenditure for a typical heavy truck vehicle. The goal of this US Department of Energy supported consortium is to establish a clear understanding of the drag producing flow phenomena. This is being accomplished through joint experiments and computations, leading to the intelligent design of drag reducing devices. This paper will describe our objective and approach, provide an overview of our efforts and accomplishments related to drag reduction devices, and offer a brief discussion of our future direction.
Journal Article

Development and Validation of a Reduced Order Model Incorporating a Semi-Empirical Degradation Model for Pouch Type LiFePO4/Graphite Cells

2017-03-28
2017-01-1218
We propose a reduced order model (ROM) for LFP/graphite cells derived from the electrochemical thermal principles that considers degradation effects and validated against experimental data obtained from a large format pouch type LFP/graphite cell whose nominal capacity is 20Ah. The characteristics of the two-phase transition and path dependence were taken into account in the ROM using a shrinking-core model with a moving interface that presents lithium rich and deficient phase. Different currents (0.1/1/3/4C) were applied to fresh cells at different ambient temperatures (25/35/45°C). Comparison between simulated results of the ROM and the collected experimental data shows a good match. The path dependence was also analyzed experimentally. For degradation model, side reaction is treated as the predominant cause of degradation of cells, which are affected by the operating conditions, such as temperature and SOC cycling range.
Technical Paper

Expanding the Use of Vehicle Specific Power in Analysis of Platoon Performance

2024-04-09
2024-01-2057
Platooning is a coordinated driving strategy by which following trucks are placed into the wake of leading vehicles. Doing this leads to two primary benefits. First, the vehicles following are shielded from aerodynamic drag by a “pulling” effect. Secondly, by placing vehicles behind the leading truck, the leading vehicles experience a “pushing” effect. The reduction in aerodynamic drag leads to reduced fuel usage and, consequently, reduced greenhouse gas emissions. To maximize these effects, the inter-vehicle distance, or headway, needs to be minimized. In current platooning strategy iterations, Coordinated Adaptive Cruise Control (CACC) is used to maintain close following distances. Many of these strategies utilize the fuel rate signal as a controller cost function parameter. By using fuel rate, current control strategies have limited applicability to non-conventional powertrains.
Technical Paper

Experimentally Establishing Ideal Platooning Performance as a Metric for Real-World Platooning Assessment

2022-03-29
2022-01-0069
Platooning heavy-duty trucks decreases aerodynamic drag for following trucks, reducing energy consumption, and increasing both range and mileage. Previous platooning experimentation has demonstrated fuel economy benefits in two-, three-, and four-truck configurations. However, exogenous variables disturb the ability of these platoons to maintain the desired formation, causing an accordion effect within the platoon and reducing energy benefits via acceleration/deceleration events. This phenomenon is increasingly exacerbated as platoon size and road grade variations increase. The current work assesses how platoon size, road curvature, and road grade influence platoon energy efficiency. Fuel consumption rate is experimentally quantified for four heterogeneous Class 8 vehicles operating in standalone (baseline), two-, and four-truck platooning configurations to assess fuel consumption changes while driving through diverse road conditions.
Journal Article

Impact of Mixed Traffic on the Energy Savings of a Truck Platoon

2020-04-14
2020-01-0679
A two-truck platoon based on a prototype cooperative adaptive cruise control (CACC) system was tested on a closed test track in a variety of realistic traffic and transient operating scenarios - conditions that truck platoons are likely to face on real highways. The fuel consumption for both trucks in the platoon was measured using the SAE J1321 gravimetric procedure as well as calibrated J1939 instantaneous fuel rate, serving as proxies to evaluate the impact of aerodynamic drag reduction under constant-speed conditions. These measurements demonstrate the effects of: the presence of a multiple-passenger-vehicle pattern ahead of and adjacent to the platoon, cut-in and cut-out manoeuvres by other vehicles, transient traffic, the use of mismatched platooned vehicles (van trailer mixed with flatbed trailer), and the platoon following another truck with adaptive cruise control (ACC).
Technical Paper

New Metrics for Quantifying the Energy Efficiency of Platoons in the Presence of Disturbances

2022-03-29
2022-01-0526
Due to aerodynamic drag reduction, vehicles may have significant energy savings while platooning in close succession. However, when circumstances force active deceleration to maintain the platoon, such as during vehicle cut-ins or grade changes, the aerodynamic efficiency benefits may be undermined by losses in kinetic energy. In this work, a theoretical relationship is derived to correlate the amount of active deceleration a vehicle experiences with energy efficiency. The derived relationship is leveraged to analyze platooning data from the last vehicle in a class 8 vehicle platoon. The data include both two- and four-truck platoons operating under nine different truck-to-truck gap control strategies. Using J1939 CAN data and GPS-estimated grade profiles, off-throttle data were isolated and longitudinal acceleration is estimated as a function of grade using Kalman filtering.
Technical Paper

Quantifying the Energy Impact of Autonomous Platooning-Imposed Longitudinal Dynamics

2023-04-11
2023-01-0896
Platooning has produced significant energy savings for vehicles in a controlled environment. However, the impact of real-world disturbances, such as grade and interactions with passenger vehicles, has not been sufficiently characterized. Follower vehicles in a platoon operate with both different aerodynamic drag and different velocity traces than while driving alone. While aerodynamic drag reduction usually dominates the change in energy consumption for platooning vehicles, the dynamics imposed on the follow vehicle by the lead vehicle and exogenous disturbances impacting the platoon can negate aerodynamic energy savings. In this paper, a methodology is proposed to link the change in longitudinal platooning dynamics with the energy consumption of a platoon follower in real time. This is accomplished by subtracting a predicted acceleration from measured longitudinal acceleration.
Technical Paper

Reliability and Life Study of Hydraulic Solenoid Valve - Part 2 - Experimental Study

2009-04-20
2009-01-0413
The current work studies the reliability of a solenoid valve (SV) used in automobile transmissions through a joint theoretical and experimental approach. The goal of this work is to use accelerated tests to characterize SV failure and correlate the results to new comprehensive finite element models (Part 1). A custom test apparatus has been designed and built to simultaneously monitor and actuate up to four SVs. The test apparatus is capable of applying a controlled duty cycle, current and actuation frequency. The SVs are also placed in a thermal chamber so that the ambient temperature can be controlled precisely. The apparatus measures in real-time the temperature, current, and voltage of each SV. A series of tests have been conducted to produce repeated failures of the SV. The failure of the SV appears to be caused by overheating and failure of the insulation used in the solenoid coil.
Journal Article

Track-Based Aerodynamic Testing of a Two-Truck Platoon

2021-04-06
2021-01-0941
Fuel savings from truck platooning are generally attributed to an aerodynamic drag-reduction phenomena associated with close-proximity driving. The current paper is the third in a series of papers documenting track testing of a two-truck platoon with a Cooperative Adaptive Cruise Control (CACC) system where fuel savings and aerodynamics measurements were performed simultaneously. Constant-speed road-load measurements from instrumented driveshafts and on-board wind anemometry were combined with vehicle measurements to calculate the aerodynamic drag-area of the vehicles. The drag-area results are presented for each vehicle in the two-truck platoon, and the corresponding drag-area reductions are shown for a variety of conditions: gap separation distances (9 m to 87 m), lateral offsets (up to 1.3 m), dry-van and flatbed trailers, and in the presence of surrounding traffic.
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