TU Delft: Aerodynamic side-skirts to reduce trailer fuel emissions

Partnership opportunities

The Platform for Aerodynamic Road Transport, The Netherlands, is developing and testing aerodynamic applications for trailers, and looking for partnerships to develop commercial applications.

Mathematical models and wind tunnel tests at TU Delft, The Netherlands, have led to the production of modified trailers with aerodynamically shaped side-skirts on the sides of trailers. These result in a reduction in air currents alongside and under the trailer, leading to a cut in fuel consumption and CO2 emission.

In 2006, Gandert van Raemdonck, an aerospace engineer at TU Delft, spent six weeks in the university’s wind tunnel to design an aerodynamic device for the underside of a trailer. It was tested in more than one hundred different configurations. He came up with the side-skirts which, he said, reduced the drag by 14 to 18 per cent. In 2007, he built a full-scale prototype of the aerodynamic side-skirts, which was tested on the roads. He measured a fuel economy of between 5 and 10 per cent.

Van Raemdonck says: “Now we are busy with the mechanical design: material choice, production, the pop-up mechanism, we need to keep the accessibility to the wheels and the underside of the trailer, and other practical integration issues. We are trying to finalise this before the end of 2008 so we can provide interested transport companies in the spring of 2009. Van Raemdonck is starting up a TU Delft–supported techno-starter, called Ephicas, to bring these aerodynamic devices to the European market.

Michel van Tooren of TU Delft’s Aerospace Engineering faculty said: “Together with this sector we have created a practical platform for further research and development, but we still need active government participation. Just obtaining permits for all the road tests has involved a huge amount of time, energy and frustration. The next step is realising a practical partnership between the government and industry in order to put the solutions into practice.”