CFD Analysis of Flow Over Pickup Truck with And Without Covering Cargo Area Using OpenFOAM

Pickup truck serves purpose as car as well as small truck. Pickup truck is popularly used in USA and Saudi Arabia. Pickup truck consists of enclosed cab and an open cargo space. Here CFD analysis of full scale pickup truck is performed using free CFD software OpenFOAM for speed range from 40km/hr to 140km/hr. For turbulence modelling k-ω model is used. This work investigates effect of covering cargo area on aerodynamics drag. Covering cargo area decreases drag coefficient by 5.2% by horizontally covering cargo area whereas decreases by 13% by inclined surface covering cargo area. Thus, covering cargo area reduces drag coefficient as recirculation zone is reduced. Inclined cover case shows drastic rise in lift force, requiring attention for safety as traction will be affected.

Minimizing the Cost of Automotive Accidents by Optimizing the Design of Advanced Driver Assist Systems: An Empirical Study Based on a Full-Size Light-Duty Pickup Truck

Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) have become increasingly common in vehicles in the last decade. The majority of studies has focused on smaller vehicles with gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR) under 5,000lbs, predominantly sedans, for their ADAS evaluations. While it is sensible to use this style of vehicle because it is ubiquitous worldwide for a typical vehicle body style, these studies neglect full-size light-duty pickup trucks (FSLDPTs), GVWR 5,000 – 10,000lbs, which are abundant on the roads in the United States, 18% of vehicles. The increase in mass, higher center of gravity, and utilitarianism of the vehicles allows for unique conditions for studying the effects of ADAS. This work determines the best and worst location to be hit in a full-size light-duty pickup truck based on data for the industry sales leader in this class of vehicles. The objective is to use these results for future designs of ADAS technologies and their placement on the FSLDPT. While these methods could be applied to any vehicle, the FSLDPT sales leader will be investigated as it represents about 9% of registered vehicles in the United States. The results will be optimized with respect to cost in terms of initial up-front purchasing cost and post-accident vehicle repair cost.

A Data Mining Approach on Lorry Drivers Overloading in Tehran Urban Roads

The aim of this study is to identify the important factors influencing overloading of commercial vehicles on Tehran’s urban roads. The weight information of commercial freight vehicles was collected using a pair of portable scales besides other information needed including driver information, vehicle features, load, and travel details by completing a questionnaire. The results showed that the highest probability of overloading is for construction loads. Further, the analysis of the results in the lorry type section shows that the least likely occurrence of overloading is among pickup truck drivers such that this likelihood within this group was one-third among Nissan and small truck drivers. Also, the results of modeling the type of route showed that the highest likelihood of overloading is for internal loads (origin and destination inside Tehran), and the least probability of overloading is for suburban trips (origin and destination outside of Tehran). Considering the type of load packing as a variable, the results of binary regression model analysis showed that the most probability of overloading occurs for packed (boxed) loads. Finally, it was concluded that drivers are 18 times more likely to commit overloading on weekends than on weekdays.