The Air-deflector and the drag:

A Case Study of Low Drag Cab Styling for a Heavy Truck

Mu Wang
1
, Qiang Li, Dengfeng Wang, Changhai Yang, Jinlong Zhao
2
, Guijin Wen
1 College of Automotive Engineering, Jilin University, Changchun, 130025, P. R. China
wm858@163.com; q_li@jlu.edu.cn; caewdf@jlu.edu.cn; ych@jlu.edu.cn
2 China National Heavy Duty Truck Group Corp., Ltd., Jinan, 250022, P. R. China
zcl@CNHTC.cn; wengj@CNHTC.cn

Abstract
This paper has investigated the cab styling of heavy-duty
truck with a low air drag based on aerodynamics and
aesthetics. It focuses on the relationship of air-deflector,
trailer and drag through an example of air-deflector styling.
The parameters, the angle of air-deflector and the height of
trailer, are specifically discussed here. The gap between cab
and trailer is fixed. A lower drag cab is presented here by
applying the CFD analysis result.
.
Keywords: Heavy truck, Air-deflector, Styling,
Aerodynamics.


1. Introduction
With the continuous expanding of global truck market, the
increasing of road transportation and the rising of fuel prices,
the aerodynamic styling of heavy truck becomes an important
research topic in the R & D department of truck
[1]
. Cab, the
key part of heavy-duty trucks, contains all performance and
functionality, and is the main target for truck manufacturers.
Heavy-duty truck, differing from passenger vehicles as a
whole set, consists of two parts, cab and trailer. It should pay
more attention to the distance, height, width between cab and
trailer, because there are alternative combinations of the two
parts. The differences in dimensions will cause the different
drag coefficients, which determine the aerodynamic
characteristics. The air deflector at the top of cab roof of
heavy truck affects greatly on the performance. However,
there are many factors related to the air drag. In addition, the
basic dimensions have a certain scope of change as a result of
restrictions and regulations and national standards, which
produces many hard points during the packing of cab. The air
deflector installed to cab can guide flow through the body
smoothly to achieve the real effect on lowering drag.
Therefore, the relationship of height and distance between cab
and trailer determines not only the size of air deflector but also
change of aerodynamic drag
[2]
. For cab styling of heavy truck,
both cab and trailer should be studied as a whole in order to
get the best aerodynamic performance. A real cab styling as an
example is presented here to investigate the relationship
between cab and trailer specifically focusing on the
parameters, such as the angle of air deflector, the height of
trailer, and drag coefficient. At present, there are two methods
in automotive aerodynamic study, wind tunnel experiment and
CFD analysis. The former has higher accuracy and better
reliability, but larger investment and longer experiment
period. It contains blocking effects, and a detailed description
of entire flow field can not be given, which impedes the
application in automotive design
[3]
. The latter has shorter
development cycle, lower cost, good reproducibility, and can
be visualized. The physical value at each point in the flow
field can be drawn out
[4]
. In the past ten years, with the
computers and the development of computing technology,
CFD numerical simulation has been increasingly applied to
automotive design
[5]
.
2. Methods and Models
2.1. CFD analysis steps
General steps can be described as follows:
a. Establish the physical model of the problem, and then
into the abstract mathematics and mechanical model, and then
determine the flow field of geometry for analysis.
b. Establish the CAD model of flow field, and put the
outer surface of model and the entire flow field into meshes.
The density of meshes and the shape of mesh cells will affect
on the calculation. Different format algorithms need different
meshes to ensure the stability and efficiency of calculation
[6]
.
c. Add the necessary initial conditions of solving. The
general boundary conditions at the entrance and exit are
velocity and pressure, and turbulent kinetic energy and
dissipation rate if the turbulence is taken into account. Fluid
plus wall boundary parameters should be added to flow
field
[7]
. Due to viscosity on the surface, no-slip boundary
conditions should be added that the speeds along all directions
are zeros. Here attention should be paid to the effect of
relative motion and ground, without contradiction and
duplication.
d. Select the appropriate method, assume the solving
process and accuracy, calculate and then save the results.
e. Choose a suitable post-processor to deal with the
results, repeat above steps until convergence is obtained.
2.2. CFD model
As the Reynolds number is 10
6
or greater, the flow around
_____________________________
978-1-4244-5268-2/09/$25.00 2009 IEEE
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truck body is turbulence, which is divided into two parts:
vibrating movement and average movement. When the
average time of unsteady N-S equations is calculated using
vibrating movement of turbulence, additional unknown
Reynolds stress is produced. Therefore, turbulence model
should be applied to solve the closure problem of RANS
average time equations
[7]
. The k- model and the constants is a
model with high Reynolds number derived from well-
expanded turbulent movement, which is only suitable for the
region with large enough Reynolds number of turbulence.
There are viscous layers and transition zone near the wall,
where Reynolds number is small, and Reynolds stress and
molecular viscous stress are in the same level. The effect of
molecular viscosity should be taken into account. The
methods, such as the low Reynolds number modification or
the wall function, are applied to deal with the coefficient of
turbulence and viscosity near the wall, when calculating the
region using the high Reynolds number model
[8]
. The kinetic
energy of turbulence and its wasting rate can be described as:
UH
V
P
P
U

w
w

w
w

k
j k
i
j
G
x
k
x Dt
k D ) (
(1)
k
G G
k
G
x x Dt
D
k
j
i
j
2
2 1
) ( H
U
H H
V
P
P
UH
H H
H

w
w

w
w
(2)
Where the coefficient of turbulence and viscosity is defined
as
H
U P
P
2
k
C
i
(3)
The values of turbulence coefficients
[9]
are
92 . 1 44 . 1
22 . 1 0 . 1 09 . 0
2 1


H H
H P
V V
C C
C
k
(4)
2.3. Simplified 3D model of the cab and trailer
An airtight 3D model is needed for grid processing in
FLUENT software. Most key surfaces are kept to follow the
original designs in the simplification. The small gaps between
panels are ignored or blocked. Some areas, such as intake
grille and air-conditioning vents, are covered with big smooth
surfaces to make an airtight space and avoid the overflow of
grid, which will seriously affect on the quality of the meshes
and the upcoming analysis and calculation. The general
dimensions of 64 tractor are shown in Table 1. The rated
load of three-axle trailer is 7,000kg. The dimensions of
containers are shown in Table 2. An example of the simplified
models is shown in Fig.1 and the simplified bottom of it is
shown in Fig. 2.
Table 1. General dimensions of the tractor
L W H 686524803745 mm
Front/rear overhang 1540 / 750 mm
Wheelbase 3200+1400 mm / 3225+1350 mm
Front/rear wheel track 2022 / 1830 mm
Tire 315 / 80R22.5
Table 2. Dimensions of container
Height Type
H
1
40 feet container
H
2
40 feet heightened container
L Both of above
Figure 1. A simplified heavy truck model with a trailer
(The arrow on the container refer to 40 feet)

Figure 2. The simplified bottom of the tractor

2.4. Basic parameters of the air deflector
Currently, new air deflectors are integrated instead of the
original combinations of top and sides. The reinforcement ribs
or additional back frames on them are designed to bear the
wind pressure. The air deflector is shaped by pressing of high-
quality steel or aluminium alloy sheet, or thermal pressing of
enhanced polyester. The assembly of it is quite simple onto
the cab, such as screwing, welding or. Sometimes, the air
deflector is part of the roof of cab. Here, the 3-D deflector
with side panels is investigated and the minor changes are
given according to the original design.
Here the height difference between the top of cab and
container is defined as H. According to the dimensions of
cab, three-axle trailer, and container, there are two cases under
full load: H
1
=95mm and H
2
=400mm, which are the
differences of 40 feet container and 40 feet heightened
container, respectively. The angles of (see Fig. 3) between
the deflector and the top of cab are investigated with the
values of 7, 14 and 24 respectively. The simplified model of
air-defector is shown in Fig. 4. The arrangement of test factor
of a heavy truck is listed in Table 3 for CFD simulations.
!0?b
Figure 3. The deflector angle
Figure 4. The simplified model of air deflector
Table 3. Test factor arrangement
H 1 2 3
H
1
I
1
H
1
II
2
H
1
III
3
H
1

H
2
IV
1
H
2
V
2
H
2
VI
3
H
2

2.5. Basic parameters of the air deflector
The grids are divided in ANSYS ICEM CFD. The flow
field is 2.2 and 6 times of the vehicle length in the front and
end area, respectively, 5 times of the vehicle height and 2.5
times of the vehicle width. Only half of model is used for
calculation because of longitudinal symmetry, as shown in
Fig. 5 and 6. Some lost or rebuilt surfaces can be repaired
using the powerful ICEM smart geometry repairing, because
the Alias model is less compatible with the engineering
software sometimes. An airtight geometry is made between
the flow field and the surface of vehicle after airtight
checking.
The meshes become sparse while leaving the body
surfaces, which can improve the calculation accuracy, reduce
the demands on computer memory, and thus increase the
speed of calculation. Therefore, the meshes around the air
deflector, container and its tail region are dense, as shown in
Fig. 7 and 8. The mesh numbers are listed in Table 4.
Figure 5. The computational domain
Figure 6. The half symmetrical model

Figure 7. Grid refinement
Figure 8. The detailed grid around the body surface
Table 4. Grid nunbers
H
1

3
H
1
1330008 cells 1406806 cells 1399541 cells
H
2
1393293 cells 1376273 cells 1326281 cells
2.6. FLUENT parameters setting
The boundary conditions are as follows: the velocity Inlet
at the entrance; the pressure Outlet at the exit; low slip at the
walls; no slip on the ground and the vehicle surfaces, which
the vehicle speed is used as the relative velocities of air and
vehicle, vehicle and ground. The symmetry plane is set, and
the convergence condition is 10
-2
(see Table 5).
Table 5. Boundary conditions
Entrance Exit Wall Fluid material Symmetry plane
V=30m/s P=0 V=0 Air Set
3. Results and Analysis
3.1. Drag coefficient
The drag coefficients C
D
are shown in Table 6, which are
a heavy truck and 40 feet container with the different angles.
The values are within 0.55~1.1
[10]
matching with the
aerodynamic drag coefficients of heavy trucks. It shows that
Test I has the lower drag coefficient, which increases with the
angle expanding. Test V, shown in Table 7, has the lower drag
coefficient with 40 feet heightened container, which doesnt
increases completely with the angle expanding. It reduces and
then increases.
Comparing H
1
with H
2
, it is found that the drag
coefficients of H
2
are all larger than those of H
1
. The reason is
that the heightened container not only increases the frontal
area, but also produces a step face between the roof of cab and
the container, which results in the changes of air flow
dramatically. In this case, a suitable air deflector is needed,
and should match with container by adding deflectors on it
and filleting it.
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Table 6. C
D
at H
1

1
=7q
2
=14q
3
=24q
Test No. I II III
H
1
=2.59m 0.5779 0.6113 0.6346
Table 7. C
D
at H
2

1
=7q
2
=14q
3
=24q
Test No. IV V VI
H
2
=2.9 m 0.6671 0.6279 0.6542
3.2. Pressure distribution at the longitudinal surface
The pressure distribution around the heavy truck has a
significant impact on its aerodynamic characteristics, as
shown in Fig. 9. The results show as follows:
a. High pressure zones at the front surfaces
The existence of high-pressure zones is due to strong
current resistance. The high-pressure zone of truck is
generally much larger than that of car, because the frontal face
of truck is large. Therefore, the deflectors are installed to
reduce the pressure on this part.
b. Negative pressure zones at the top corner of cab
Test I has a negative pressure zone due to the smaller
deflector angle and high speed of flow. The fluid is separated
here. The negative pressure zone of Test II is smaller than
Test I due to the increased angle so that flow separation does
not occur here, but the small negative pressure zone still exists
due to the higher speed. Test IV has the bigger negative
pressure zone due to the smaller deflector angle and the bigger
height difference, which make the fluid separated.
c. High pressure zones at the top corners of containers
Although the fluid is blocked at this place and the high
pressures exist, Test I has the smallest high pressure zone, and
the pressure gradient is the smallest around the gap between
the deflector and the container. It shows that the deflector and
container with H1 are matched each other, the difference of
height is smaller and the high speed flow can pass by easily
with a smaller drag. Test V with H2 gives the same result.
Test IV has the smaller high pressure zone.
d. Low pressure zone at the front edge of container in Test
III
This is a phenomenon of over refraction due to the bigger
reflector angle of Test III, i.e. a whirlpool is formed at the rear
part of the deflector. The pressure in the front of container is
greater than the pressure within the whirlpool, which makes
the fluid moving transversely and the negative pressure zone
is increased at the front of container. It shows that the pressure
zone in the front of container is smaller than that in the rear of
it due to the air separation in the front edge and reattachment
at the middle of container.
e. Different thicknesses of boundaries at the top of
container
The thickness of boundary without deflector is smaller
than that of boundary with deflector.
a. Test I (
1
H
1
)
b. Test II (
2
H
1
)
c. Test III (
3
H
1
)
d. Test IV (
1
H
2
)
e. Test V (
2
H
2
)
f. Test VI (
3
H
2
)
Figure 9. Pressure distribution at the longitudinal symmetry
surface (Pa)
!0?8
3.3. Velocity vector at the longitudinal surface
The following results are derived from Fig. 10:
a. Rapid increasing of speed at the negative pressure zone
A whirlpool is formed when the fluid rotates clockwise in
a low speed. It can be seen clearly in Test IV due to the
smaller deflector angle and higher container.
b. Reverse of flow
As a result of the guiding of deflector, the original
horizontal velocity vector follows the direction of deflector.
The fluid momentum is still very large when leaving the
deflector, and there is still a velocity component in the
direction of z-axis. It crashes the top surface of container after
a while, and a reverse of flow is formed that the top part is
small and the bottom large. It is shown obviously in Test II,
III, and VI due to the bigger deflector angles.
c. Sudden increase of speed at the top corner of cab
It results from the negative pressure zone at this place. The
velocity gradients in other places are small. Test I, V has a
smooth flow around the body of heavy truck.
d. Low-velocity layer close to the surface of heavy truck
It is a boundary layer a viscous bottom layer and transit
zone due to molecular viscosity. This coincides with the
hydromechanics theory.
e. Horseshoe-shaped wake vortex at the rear of heavy
truck.
4. Air deflector styling
Test I and V has the better aerodynamic characteristics
through the above analyses. For the heavy truck, the lower
drag can be achieved if using the 7 deflector with 40 feet
container or the 14 deflector with 40 feet heightened
container. In practice, a fix deflector is designed to meet both
situations. For Test V, the reverse of flow is quite clear. It
means that the angle of deflector is a little bit large. Therefore,
the 10 deflector is selected to carry on the styling of deflector.
The deflector, as a very important part of the heavy truck,
should meet the general style, and the optimized detail designs
for its functions. The overall styling of the heavy truck is
strong and strength, so the simple style is adopted. A single
smooth surface plus a vivid slot, which can also play a
supporting role in the actual processing and assembly, makes
the deflector energetic (Fig. 11).
5. Conclusion
a. For heavy truck, the most disorder flow fields are
located in the gap between the cab and the container, the back
and the rear bottom of it.
b. The height of container has a greater impact on the
aerodynamic drag coefficient of heavy truck, and a deflector is
needed to reduce air resistance.
c. The deflector and the container should match each
other, avoiding the energy loss or high drag.
d. The deflector of a heavy truck as an example is
presented for the low drag cab styling.
a. Test I (
1
H
1
)
b. Test II (
2
H
1
)
c. Test III (
3
H
1
)
d. Test IV (
1
H
2
)
e. Test V (
2
H
2
)
f. Test VI (
3
H
2
)
Figure 10. Velocity vector at the longitudinal symmetry surface
(m/s, positive x-axis)
Acknowledgement
This work was supported by the project of Heavy-duty
Cab Development, the sub-project of Heavy-duty Vehicles
Integrated Development of Advanced Technology from State
863 Project, No. 2006AA 110105-1.
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a. The air deflector
b. The final rendering
Figure 11. The final styling of air deflector
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