Morphing vehicle platoons for enhanced aerodynamic efficiency

Medium- and heavy-duty vehicles contribute significantly to greenhouse gas emissions due to poor aerodynamic efficiency. A promising strategy to tackle this issue is platooning, where vehicles align closely in a drafting formation to attain an aerodynamic advantage. Such coordinated movements are widely observed in nature – both animals and athletes frequently form platoons to save energy. Interestingly, some experienced individuals in a platoon could alter their body shapes to enhance aerodynamic interactions and further reduce the overall energy expenditure. Inspired by these natural phenomena, we propose a morphing vehicle platooning strategy, where individual vehicles autonomously adjust their exterior shapes to actively interact with the airflow, thereby enhancing collective aerodynamic performance. Morphing is accomplished by retrofitting deformable structures actuated by embedded motors on vehicles' roofs. A computational framework integrating genetic algorithms and computational fluid dynamics simulations is integrated into the system to determine the optimal collective morphing configuration. Our results point at an appreciable reduction in the average aerodynamic drag force experienced by the platoon. Analysis of the flow physics unveils the morphing structures' capability to collectively streamline the airflow and reduce the wake size. The proposed morphing strategy could inform future designs of vehicle platoons toward reduced emissions and improved fuel economy.