Drag force study of vehicles in platoon arrangement using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD)

Mohd Fauzi, Muhammad Najhi (2021) Drag force study of vehicles in platoon arrangement using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD). Project Report. Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka, Melaka, Malaysia. (Submitted)

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Abstract

The cause of drag force vehicle accounts high fuel losses. “Fuel consumption is adversely affected due to aerodynamic forces (i.e., drag force). About 30 % to 50 % of fuel energy is lost due to aerodynamic force” (Sivaraj, 2018). We need to accept that every single car experience so high drag force that acting on its. Therefore, Platoon principle allows for a significant decrease in fuel consumption at highway speeds by reducing the aerodynamic burden on vehicles. In this project, three cars were arranged back-to-back with difference distance between each car and was simulated using ANSYS software. The distance 1.5m, 2.0m and 2.5m to be suited to the size of Ahmed model car as this project using Ahmed model for the simulation. This project discovers the effect of distance between the cars with the drag coefficient acted on the car. So, 9 cases arrangement with difference distance were studied. At the end of the study, we can conclude that lowest drag force experienced by the all three cars are at case number 3, where the distance between car 1 and 2 (X1) is 1.5m and the distance between car 2 and 3 (X2) is 2.5m. Drag coefficient (CD) experienced by car 1 is only 0.1472, car 2 is 0.1857 meanwhile car 3 is 0.2177. The average drag coefficient from the case 3 (the lowest) drag coefficient recorded in this simulation is 0.1835, therefore from the standard drag coefficient of single car (0.25), we can say that it reduced about 26.8%. Therefore, it can be said that the aerodynamic study of car in platoon arrangement give a positive impact on reducing the drag coefficient of car hence contribute to fuel saving.

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