Investigation of the aerodynamic phenomena associated with a long lorry platoon running through a tunnel

Zhang, Xiaotian; Robertson, Francis H.; Soper, David; Hemida, Hassan; Huang, Shi-Di

doi:10.1016/j.jweia.2020.104514

Cited by 9 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 49 publications

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“…The second-order upwind scheme is applied to solve the k and ω transport equations. The time advancement is conducted using a second-order implicit scheme, and the time step is set to be 1 × 10 −4 s [50,68,69]. Note that a smaller time step ( 0.5 × 10 −4 s) has also been tested in this work to confirm that the present time step is sufficient.…”

Section: Simulation Methodology and Numerical Schemesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It has a dimension of 0.395 m, 0.175 m, and 0.125 m for length (L), height (H), and width (W), respectively. This lorry model is simplified from a commercial Leyland DAF 45-130 vehicle, which has been extensively investigated in previous studies [15,28,[50][51][52][53][54]. Despite some simplifications, such as the removal of side mirrors and windshield overhangs, these simplifications do not significantly affect the aerodynamic performance of the lorry model but help to reduce the numerical efforts greatly [52,55,56].…”

Section: Description Of the Vehicle And The Platoonmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The platoon of the present study consists of eight lorries. It has been proven in previous studies [15,28,50,54] that an eight-vehicle platoon is long enough to ensure boundary layer development so that the aerodynamics of the platoon can be fully examined. The platoon travels at a nominal speed = 25 m/s, which yields a Reynolds (Re) number of 3 × 10 5 based on the height H of the lorry.…”

Section: Description Of the Vehicle And The Platoonmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The sliding mesh technique is adopted to simulate the relative movement between the lorry platoon, the ground plane, and the tunnel. This technique has been used to simulate vehicles travelling in a tunnel [50,[70][71][72]. More detailed information about this technique can be found in Chu et al [73].…”

Section: Computational Domain and Boundary Conditionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…To gain a better understanding of the aerodynamics associated with vehicle platooning running in road tunnels, a recent study investigated the case of an eight-lorry platoon using both model-scale experiments and numerical simulations [50]. The most interesting finding of that study is that the drag reduction effect due to platooning is larger in the tunnel than that in the open air.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 4 more Smart Citations

Numerical Investigation of The Aerodynamics of Lorry Platooning Travelling through Road Tunnels

Zhang

Soper²,

Fraga³

et al. 2023

Univers. J. Civ. Eng.

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With potential benefits in drag reduction and fuel saving, the aerodynamics of vehicle platoons have been investigated for a wide range of cases in open space. When vehicle platoons travel in road tunnels, the platooning strategy could be affected by the tunnel size, the traffic lane, and the inter-vehicle spacing. This paper presents a detailed investigation of these effects by numerically simulating the aerodynamics of an eight-lorry platoon travelling through road tunnels. The slipstream velocity and pressure fields, flow structures, and drag forces are examined as the inter-vehicle spacing are varied from 0.1L to 1.5L, where L is the length of a single lorry. It is found that the airflow induced by the moving platoon in the large tunnel (two-lane tunnel) is weaker than that in the small tunnel (single-lane tunnel), but similar to the case in the open air. As a result, the drag reduction due to platooning is most significant in the small tunnel, while the results in the large tunnel and the open air are largely identical. It is further found that, owing to the efficient shielding, the drag reduction in the open air increases monotonically as the inter-vehicle spacing decreases. However, the flow fields in both small and large tunnels change pronouncedly when the inter-vehicle spacing is 0.25L, resulting in relatively larger drag coefficients at this spacing. These findings are less sensitive to the traffic lane. This study provides useful insight into the platooning strategy of a long lorry platoon.

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Section: Simulation Methodology and Numerical Schemesmentioning

confidence: 99%