Aerodynamic Drag Reduction of Heavy Vehicle Using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD)

Abstract

The aerodynamic study of State Transport Bus minimizes road accidents and fuel consumption. The increasing fuel prices has made private transportation uneconomical. The Vehicle utilizes around 40% of available engine power to overcome the drag resistance. Drag coefficient can be reduced by streamlining the surface, modifying the outer structure of bus, roof optimization, etc. considering ergonomics and aesthetics. Drag resistance can be reduced by reducing drag coefficient. Exterior design of city bus is poor considering aerodynamic aspect. The objective of this paper is to optimize state bus and use Computational Fluid Dynamics to calculate drag coefficient which will eventually reduce the fuel consumption of vehicle. For this 3D CAD (SOLIDWORKS) model of Maharashtra State Transport bus is prepared and optimized considering standard parameters and drag coefficient is calculated using CFD software ANSYS 2021 R1 (FLUENT). The drag coefficient has reduced from 0.9 to 0.6 Around 33 % reduction in drag coefficient is achieved. Due to which the fuel economy is reduced by 26%. The turbulent model standard k-eplison is used for better approximation of results.