Taherkhani, AR, de Boer, GN, Gaskell, PH et al. (5 more authors) (2015) Aerodynamic Drag Reduction of Emergency Response Vehicles. Advances in Automobile Engineering, 4 (2). ISSN 2167-7670
Abstract
This paper presents the first experimental and computational investigation into the aerodynamics of emergency response vehicles and focusses on reducing the additional drag that results from the customary practice of adding light-bars onto the vehicles’ roofs. A series of wind tunnel experiments demonstrate the significant increase in drag that results from the light bars and show these can be minimized by reducing the flow separation caused by them. Simple potential improvements in the aerodynamic design of the light bars are investigated by combining Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) with Design of Experiments and metamodelling methods. An aerofoil-based roof design concept is shown to reduce the overall aerodynamic drag by up to 20% and an analysis of its effect on overall fuel consumption indicates that it offers a significant opportunity for improving the fuel economy and reducing emissions from emergency response vehicles. These benefits are now being realised by the UK’s ambulance services
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2015 Taherkhani AR, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. |
Keywords: | Vehicle aerodynamics; wind tunnel; CFD; fuel economy; shape optimisation |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Engineering & Physical Sciences (Leeds) > School of Mechanical Engineering (Leeds) > Institute of Engineering Thermofluids, Surfaces & Interfaces (iETSI) (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 05 Nov 2015 11:35 |
Last Modified: | 14 Jan 2016 14:10 |
Published Version: | https://dx.doi.org/10.4172/2167-7670.1000122 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | OMICS International |
Identification Number: | 10.4172/2167-7670.1000122 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:91194 |