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(Or, another research group invents fairings and skirts)

"Creating an improved aerodynamic shape for truck trailers by mounting sideskirts can lead to a cut in fuel consumption and emissions of up to as much as 15%. Earlier promising predictions, based on mathematical models and wind tunnel tests by TU Delft, have been confirmed during road tests with an adapted trailer. This means that PART (Platform for Aerodynamic Road Transport), the public-private partnership platform, has produced an application which can immediately be put into production."

from

http://www.tudelft.nl/live/pagina.jsp?id=0f68aa8f-96e0-4d88-98a8-e965db2e0644&lang=en

Personally I would have called it 'Framework for Aerodynamic Road Transport" but that's just me.

DAS

Neccesity is the mother of invention. Still holds true.

Interesting. Those mods won't be much help for the open car carriers though.

Interesting. Those mods won't be much help for the open car carriers though.

I've always wondered why they didn't close in one side of the car carriers and provide a tarp and track on top. I suppose one side needs to be left open so the driver can see what he's doing when he's stacking the cars on the trailer?

Personally I would have called it 'Framework for Aerodynamic Road Transport" but that's just me.


:D

Man, those side skirts would be great for US trailers. Some US trucks are already aero.

Goggle aerodynamic trucks and see why I called this re-inventing. But the more and sooner truck shapes are improved, the better.

DAS

http://techno-fandom.org/~hobbit/cars/neas07/tn/truckwing.jpg
.
Saw it at the auto-show last November, but I never actually see
'em on trucks around here.
.
_H*

Maybe start seeing more? I've seen them recently on Con-way Truckload's 53 footers. Probably won't see them on most of their regular fleet as they're 28ft pups run as doubles.

Current issue of Heavy Duty Trucking (HDT) magazine has a write up on a study the feds did a few years back. They measured FE improvements and NOx reduction at 55 mph and 65 mph using trailer aero mods and super single tires. Aero mods included the side skirts, front fairing on trailer, and an inflatable boat tail on the rear.

Study- http://www.epa.gov/otaq/stateresources/transconf/policy/420b07004.pdf (PDF)

Percent improvement over standard configuration:

Wide based tires (super singles)-
at 55 mph- FE- 6.04%, NOx reduction- 36.9%
at 65 mph- FE- 12.6%, NOx reduction- 30.5%

Trailer fairings (front, side and rear)-
at 55 mph- FE- 5%, NOx reduction- 18.5%
at 65 mph- FE- 12.6%, NOx reduction- 33.5%

Super singles and Trailer fairings combined-
at 55 mph- boat tail deflated- test inconclusive
at 65 mph- FE- 17.9%, NOx reduction- 44.6%

I wish they had seperated the boat tail testing from the rest of the fairing tests. An inflatable boat tail may be too cumbersome to deal with in its current design. Either way, fleets would be hard pressed to ignore these results at today's $4.00 gal fuel.

Keith