Saturday, December 12, 2009

Eighteen Wheeler Design Innovation Cuts Fuel Use By 7.5%

A "boat tail" addition to the nation's eighteen-wheeled tractor trailers would make a significant difference in U.S. fuel consumption.

Alternative Energy News.info reports:

"A simple attachment of a tapering protrusion at the back of a truck can save up to 7.5% in fuel consumption. This is a significant amount of fuel saving with a simple alteration. This fuel saving is possible due to dramatically-improved aerodynamics. It has been verified by road tests conducted by the Dutch PART (Platform for Aerodynamic Road Transport) public-private partnership platform.

They short listed adding of a boat tail to the back of the truck. What is a boat tail? It is a tapering protrusion which is mounted on the back end of a truck. Tail ends length is about two meters. The feasibility of this arrangement is already demonstrated by the wind tunnel experiments and computer simulations." See full article.

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