Fuel Consumption Reduction of Tractor-Trailers by Variable Body Geometries

Reduction of fuel consumption and CO2 emissions represents a main objective of development in transportation industry today. As one component of driving resistances, the aerodynamic drag plays an important role. Especially in case of functional-driven design of commercial vehicles, unfavorable outer vehicle contours lead to high aerodynamic drag coefficients. The present publication introduces a patented approach of a variable body geometry for tractor-trailers to provide both, reduced aerodynamic resistances and maximum transportation space on demand. A prototype trailer has been developed and tested under real-life haulage conditions over a driving performance of more than 20,000 km. In this field trial, the measured averaged reduction of fuel consumption resulted in about 1.5 liters fuel per 100 km.