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Understanding Practical Limits To Heavy Truck Drag Reduction, Drew Landman, Richard Wood, Whitney Seay, John Bledsoe
Understanding Practical Limits To Heavy Truck Drag Reduction, Drew Landman, Richard Wood, Whitney Seay, John Bledsoe
Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Faculty Publications
A heavy truck wind tunnel test program is currently underway at the Langley Full Scale Tunnel (LFST). Seven passive drag reducing device configurations have been evaluated on a heavy truck model with the objective of understanding the practical limits to drag reduction achievable on a modern tractor trailer through add-on devices. The configurations tested include side skirts of varying length, a full gap seal, and tapered rear panels. All configurations were evaluated over a nominal 15 degree yaw sweep to establish wind averaged drag coefficients over a broad speed range using SAE J1252. The tests were conducted by first quantifying …