Commercial Vehicle Aerodynamic Drag Reduction:

Historical Perspective as a Guide

Kevin R. Cooper

National Research Council of Canada

Ottawa, Canada

Introduction
The aerodynamics development of commercial vehicles has evolved over many
years. Sixty-five years ago, the Labatt Brewing Company developed a
streamlined truck for advertising purposes and to provide larger capacity and
higher cruising speeds, Figure 1. The success of this effort is demonstrated by
the fact that while trucks of the day travelled at 35 mi/h, the Labatt truck
could cruise at 50 mi/h with a fifty percent larger load. The focus today is no
longer on speed, but on energy conservation. It is beneficial for a country to
minimise its energy utilisation and equally beneficial for its trucking industry
to make money while doing so.

Fig. 1: 1947 Labatt Streamliner

The opportunity offered by aerodynamic drag reduction was successfully

exploited by North American industry twenty-five years ago and is being
revisited in a second effort by industry and government. The previous
SAE/DOT Voluntary Truck and Bus Fuel Economy Program had an

R. McCallen et al. (eds.), The Aerodynamics of Heavy Vehicles: Trucks, Buses, and Trains
© Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2004
10 K.R. Cooper

important impact on the implementation of fuel-saving aerodynamics. The

current DOE program might do the same.
The SAE/DOT program had the benefit of being first and thus being
able to utilise the large gains obtained from reshaping the front ends of the
trucks, which were relatively easy to deal with and gave the largest drag
reductions. Much of the work focussed on the tractor, since only one truck
needed to be modified, no matter how many trailers were in the fleet. At the
same time, trailer mounted devices or trailer modifications also found wide
acceptance, and rounded-edged truck bodies have become the standard.
Many other areas were investigated, including: tractor-trailer gap seals,
trailer skirts, trailer boat-tailing and tractor-trailer integration. These have not
been successful in the marketplace, due to operational difficulties, due to their
small return on investment, or due to the complexity of fleet-wide integration.
It has been known for many decades that more integrated tractor-trailer
combinations were beneficial aerodynamically, but the complexities of doing
so have precluded development in this area, except for demonstration vehicles.
Steady increases in fuel prices over the years now make some of the
unused technology economically viable. A major new initiative to improve
truck fuel economy seems appropriate. The important question is how to do
so? We have the option of seeking to further hone the aerodynamics of the
truck. Much of this work has been done and so we face the law of
diminishing returns - a greater and greater effort to provide a smaller and
smaller gain.
A more effective scenario would be to apply what is already known in the
short term and to work toward more integrated configurations in the longer
term. The latter task is a major challenge, even though it can be shown to
offer considerable benefit, because of the importance of not compromising the
investment in current fleet hardware and warehousing. The issue is not how
to lower the drag coefficient by a further 0.002, but rather to work with fleets,
manufacturers, researchers and legislators to apply what we already know.
Without appropriate legislation, the acceptance of the operators and
collaboration between the OEMs, no real improvements will be made. We
need to find solutions by implementing our existing and substantial body of
knowledge. We do not need to study the problem much more.
A new effort, sponsored by the DOE, is being mounted now to further
improve truck aerodynamics, primarily based on CPO calculation and some
experiment. This paper provides a review of previous aerodynamic research
and technology-transfer initiatives as a way of placing the new program in
perspective. It seeks to ensure that the existing, rich aerodynamic history is
not ignored and that lessons learned previously in technology transfer are not
lost.