Aerodynamics of electric cars in platoon SAGE publications

The potential aerodynamic benefits of operating full-scale electric vehicles in platoons of 2 and 3 vehicles have been investigated. Since drag reduction has a direct impact on vehicle range, power consumption was measured directly and surface pressure measurements were made to characterise the changes in pressure field that influence the power required to overcome aerodynamic drag. CFD simulations were validated against the track measurements to assess the limitations of using a practical, limited number of pressure tappings to measure drag. The overall power consumption for the whole platoon was found to reduce proportionally with the reduction of vehicle spacing and it was also observed that increasing the number of vehicles in the platoon from 2 to 3 further increased the power savings from 33.4% to 39.1%. These power savings were attributed primarily to changes in surface pressure acting on the base of the leading vehicle and the forebody of the trailing vehicle.

Record URL:
Availability:
- Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/issn/09544070
Supplemental Notes:
- © IMechE 2020.
Authors:
- Ebrahim, Hesham
- 0000-0003-3745-6362
- Dominy, Robert
- Martin, Nick
Publication Date: 2021-4

Language

English

Media Info

Media Type: Web
Features: References;
Pagination: pp 1396-1408
Serial:
- Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part D: Journal of Automobile Engineering
- Volume: 235
- Issue Number: 5
- Publisher: Sage Publications Limited
- ISSN: 0954-4070
- EISSN: 2041-2991
- Serial URL: http://pid.sagepub.com/content/current

Subject/Index Terms

TRT Terms: Aerodynamics; Bluff bodies; Drag; Electric vehicles; Energy consumption; Fluid dynamics; Traffic platooning
Subject Areas: Energy; Highways; Vehicles and Equipment;

Filing Info

Accession Number: 01767910
Record Type: Publication
Files: TRIS
Created Date: Mar 9 2021 7:59AM