A novel morphing vehicle design for improved fuel economy

Optimizing the body shapes of road vehicles is essential to enhancing their aerodynamic efficiency and improving their fuel economy. Heavy-duty vehicles, such as commercial and pickup trucks, have poor aerodynamic performances due to a lack of streamlined body shapes. To address this issue, we propose a low-cost, noninvasive morphing vehicle concept toward minimizing the aerodynamic drag, thereby improving the energy efficiency of the vehicle. Using a generic pickup truck model as the base geometry, morphing is enabled by retrofitting active flexible structures on its roof, which can actively interact with the surrounding airflow. To guide real-time, active morphing, we employ a combined parameterized genetic algorithm – computational fluid dynamics framework to identify the optimal shapes of the active structures for a range of realistic driving speeds. This optimization framework identifies a series of morphing strategies that could lead to 7% - 12% reductions in the aerodynamic drag. Analysis of the flow field uncovers the role of the morphing structures in modulating the wake flow and facilitating drag reduction. This novel non-invasive morphing vehicle concept could lead to outstanding energy savings and contribute to enhanced fuel economy for heavy-duty vehicles.