An adaptive morphing design for medium- and heavy-duty vehicles toward enhanced aerodynamic efficiency

Medium- and heavy-duty vehicles operate with limited fuel efficiency and contribute to significant levels of greenhouse gas emissions, primarily due to their bulky exterior shapes, which frequently induce flow separations and large, low-pressure wake regions. To mitigate this issue, we propose an adaptive morphing vehicle design that is capable of actively regulating the surrounding airflow to enhance its fuel economy. Morphing is achieved by retrofitting deformable structures actuated by built-in electric motors. The optimal shape configurations at varying driving speeds are identified through a parametric genetic algorithm-based optimization framework. To validate this design concept, reduced-scale prototypes of morphing vehicles based on realistic medium- and heavy-duty trucks are fabricated and their performances are extensively investigated through experiments in a large-scale wind tunnel facility. Experimental results confirm that both medium- and heavy-duty morphing truck prototypes could actively adapt their shapes in real-time to the aerodynamic environment, achieving a substantial drag reduction. Our findings demonstrate the feasibility of real-time, adaptive morphing, paving the way for the realization of full-scale morphing trucks with enhanced fuel economy and reduced emissions.