Master of Engineering (International

Automotive Engineering)
(School of Aerospace, Mechanical and Manufacturing
Engineering)

OENG1089 – Master’s Research Project Part-1

First Supervisor: Professor. David Taylor
Second Supervisor : Dr. Sherman CP Cheung

Research Project Proposal

CFD Analysis Of Commercial Bus Model For Improvement Of Its
Aerodynamic Performance

Submitted by
SurajMilindNevase (3561271)

1
Abstract
Nowadays, increase in fuel price and firm government rules makes the transport more
uneconomical. In the competitive world, aerodynamically efficient design and exterior styling
for the reduction of engine load to lessen the fuel consumption are the two important factors.
The current commercial buses have meagre aerodynamics exterior design. In this research
paper, a typical public commercial bus has been taken as the research object. This research
aims to modify the outside structure and surface of the bus aerodynamically to improve its
performance by reducing the effect of the drag force. In the present paper, research work in
the field of CFD analysis of commercial bus models and other heavy vehicles for
improvement of their aerodynamic performance have been reviewed and presented it as
literature review.

Several ideas were applied to achieve reduction in aerodynamic drag coefficient including
slightly modification outer shape of the bus. Thus, five different cases were
investigated.ANSYS workbench is used for CFD simulation in order to optimize the vehicle
design. This is helpful to determine the air flow analysis and drag force. It was found that
reduction in aerodynamic drag up to 14% can be reached, which corresponds to 0.4858 gal/h
savings in fuel.

This study has shown there are still possibilities to improve the aerodynamics of vehicles,
especially at the lower body of the bus. By implementing wheel housing ventilation and air
curtains at the fronts the drag resistance can significantly be reduced and hence lower fuel
consumption.

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Acknowledgements
This master thesis has been performed in collaboration with BUSTECH Pty Ltd which
sponsored this remarkable research project in the field of vehicle aerodynamics and CFD. I
would like extend a great thanks to my first supervisor Prof. David Taylor for offering this
project and guiding and giving various ideas. I am also grateful to my second supervisor Dr.
Sherman CP Cheung for providing guidance on CFD analysis.

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Contents
Abstract ................................................................................................................................................... 2
Acknowledgements................................................................................................................................. 3
1 Introduction ....................................................................................................................................... 6
1.1 Background .................................................................................................................................. 6
1.2 Objective ...................................................................................................................................... 7
1.3 Challenges .................................................................................................................................... 7
1.4 Scope ............................................................................................................................................ 7
1.5 Method......................................................................................................................................... 7
2 Theory ................................................................................................................................................ 8
2.1 Scope of Aerodynamics................................................................................................................. 9
2.1.1 External Flow Phenomenon ................................................................................................. 11
2.1.2 Boundary Layer ................................................................................................................... 11
2.1.3 Flow Separation .................................................................................................................. 12
2.1.4 Friction Drag ......................................................................................................................... 12
2.1.5 Pressure Drag ....................................................................................................................... 12
2.1.6 Forces and Moment on Vehicle ........................................................................................... 12
3 Literature Review ............................................................................................................................... 14
4 Methodologies ................................................................................................................................... 19
4.1 CAD Designing ............................................................................................................................. 19
4.2 CFD Analysis ................................................................................................................................ 20
4.2.1 Creation of Fluid Domain ..................................................................................................... 20
4.2.2 Meshing................................................................................................................................ 20
4.2.3 Boundary Conditions (Setup) ............................................................................................... 21
4.2.4 Solution ................................................................................................................................ 23
4.2.5 Results .................................................................................................................................. 23
5 Case Description................................................................................................................................. 24
5.1 Elements and Concepts Utilised in Modification of Bus ............................................................. 24
5.1.1 Wheel Flaps .......................................................................................................................... 24
5.1.2 Wheel housing Ventilation................................................................................................... 24
5.1.3 Front Spoiler......................................................................................................................... 25
5.1.4 Wheel Covers ....................................................................................................................... 26
5.1.5 Air Curtain ............................................................................................................................ 27
5.2 Modelling .................................................................................................................................... 27

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 5.2.1 Baseline Model..................................................................................................................... 27
5.2.2 Modified Model 1 ................................................................................................................ 28
5.2.3 Modified Model 2 ................................................................................................................ 28
5.2.4 Modified Model 3 ................................................................................................................ 29
5.2.5 Modified Model 4 ................................................................................................................ 29
6 Results and Analysis ......................................................................................................................... 30
6.1 Results and Discussion ................................................................................................................ 30
6.1.1 Baseline model at 100km/h ................................................................................................. 30
6.1.2 Modified Model 1 at 100km/h ............................................................................................. 32
6.1.3 Modified Model 2 at 100km/h ............................................................................................. 33
6.1.4 Modified Model 3 at 100km/h ............................................................................................. 34
6.1.5 Modified Model 4 at 100km/h ............................................................................................. 35
6.2 Comparison of Baseline Model and Modified Model 4 .............................................................. 36
6.3 Power and Fuel Savings .............................................................................................................. 37
7 Conclusions ....................................................................................................................................... 38
8 References......................................................................................................................................... 39

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1 Introduction
In this section background, objectives, challenges are discussed,

1.1 Background
The increase in the use of fossil fuel is one of the most sensitive dilemmas which world
would face in coming decades. Petroleum nearly contributes 40% of the total amount of fossil
fuel. Gasoline and diesel are the most important petroleum products which are disintegrated
day by day. Nearly 66% of the petroleum products are consumed for transportation out of the
total petroleum products spent by other sectors.

Buses are major means of transportation. Buses are considered to be one of the heavy
vehicles that consume more fuel. It is estimated that bus consumes up to 30-40% of fuel just
to overcome the air resistance. Therefore, it has become more important to produce buses
with better fuel efficiency. Also strict government rules and increase in fuel life has raised the
pressure on manufacturers to manufacture buses with better fuel efficiency. Therefore, the
research not only on light weight vehicle but also on heavy vehicle energy saving and
emission reducing enters the advanced stage, as a result more and more attention are given to
the aerodynamic drag on vehicle.

Aerodynamic drag is a vital part of the vehicle driving resistance. In a moving vehicle, engine
power is utilised to overcome the rolling resistance and aerodynamics resistance. At lower
speed, rolling resistance will dominate aerodynamic resistance. However, as the speed of the
vehicle becomes high enough, the percentage of aerodynamic drag will increase quickly and
it soon becomes the dominant element which consumes more vehicle energy. Drag force on
moving vehicle is given by,

Drag Force = 0.5*ρAV2CD

As seen from the above equation, drag force is directly proportional to the square of the
velocity of the vehicle. Also it depends upon frontal area and drag force of the vehicle. Any
drop in these values will reduced the drag force experienced by the vehicle. In general,
reduction of aerodynamic is very important to enhance the vehicle performance. The vehicle
exterior styling is important factor as it attracts the customers. Vehicle should be able to
project its performance abilities through outer design with low fuel consumption.

The aerodynamic resistance for the various designs are calculated by running simulations
using commercial Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) software.Nowadays, CFD is a well-
known tool in the automotive industry for designing and analysing the vehicles of the next
generation. CFD can be applied to a wide variety of topics within the field of road vehicle
aerodynamics such as external and internal aerodynamics, but as well Underhood Thermal
Management UTM).

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1.2 Objective
The main objective of this thesis is to investigate the possibility to increase the vehicle
performance by reducing the form of the drag force of the bus by changing the exterior of the
bus especially lower body part of the bus and wheels.

 Design an existing bus as a baseline model by using ANSYS.

 To perform various flow analysis on the base model using CFD software.
 Improve the exterior of the base model to reduce the drag force.

This thesis main goal is to be able to present a functional and cost effective exterior changes
or any drag reducing devices that will reduce the drag resistance according to simulated
results from the commercial CFD code.

1.3 Challenges
 Can adding drag reduction devices like spoiler or flaps on wheel housing reduce the
drag?
 Can changing the exterior of existing bus reduce the drag coefficient?
 How drag is affected?
 How is the flow around bus affected?
 Is it cost effective?

1.4 Scope
The scope of the master thesis will not include the changes in interior; alterations will only be
done on the exterior of bus.

No physical test will be performed, only computer simulation will be done with commercial
CFD codes which does not take temperature shifting and air density variation into
consideration.

The simulation will be done at four different speeds which are 100 km/h, 80km/h, 60km/h
and 40 km/h.

1.5 Method
To investigate the influence of changes in exterior an existing bus modelhad to be simulated
as reference case to measure any improvements. A complete 3D model of the BUSTECHXdi
12.5 metre is designed into CAD software. All the dimensions of the bus are provided by
BUSTECH that were meshed and crated for CFD analysis.

The design of baseline and modified are done in Solidworks and the parameter affecting the
drag will be different for each case and CFD simulations are performed in
ANSYSworkbench. The design of the exterior of the bus has to meet the requirements of
having realistic geometry and feasible to us in production vehicle.

CFD simulations include three parts:

 Pre-processing

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  Solving for equations
 Post-processing

Figure 1: CFD Schematics

The pre-processing
processing will include CAD-
CAD cleaning and mesh generation. To be able to generate
a surface mesh the surface of the model can’t have holes and bad
bad surface conditions. The pre
pre-
processing made in ANSYS Workbench, software which are cost commonly used in industry
for CFD simulation. To be able to describe the flow around the bus the governing equation
has to be solved, this will be made in Fluid Flow (CFX). In Fluid Flow all the data will be
given, i.e. boundary conditions and air speed. The visualization or simulation will be
performed in Post-processing.
processing.

2 Theory
Aerodynamic drag, also called as wind resistance, is a retarding force exerted on a vvehicle by
the air through which it moves. As a bus travels forward, it breaks up the flow of air, creating
an area of low air pressure behind the body (the wake). The high pressure air surrounding the
wake then moves into low pressure area, exerting the force that pulls vehicle backwards. Low
pressure areas created in the gap of underneath the bus, similarly contribute to aerodynamic
drag.
The amount of energy required to overcome aerodynamic drag is affected by three factors:

 The effective
tive frontal surface area of the vehicle.

 Shape of the vehicle.

 The speed at which vehicle is travelling.

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 Figure 2: Horsepower required to overcome aerodynamic drag.
A Vehicle with less frontal surface area will have lower drag. A vehicle with rounded or
streamlined shape will have lower drag since air flow separation will be less dramatic(i.e.
reduced wake). As shown in figure power required to overcome aerodynamic drag increases
as a function of the cube of vehicle speed. Distance specific fuel consumption required to
overcome aerodynamic drag increases as a square of vehicle speed.

2.1 Scope of Aerodynamics

Figure 3 and Figure 4 shows the description of the fuel energy used in a modern vehicle at
urban driving and highway driving respectively. The shape of the vehicle uses about 3% of
fuel to overcome the resistance in urban driving, while it takes11% of fuel for the highway
driving. This considerable high value of fuel usage in highway driving attracts several design
engineers to enhance the aerodynamics of the vehicle using minimal design changes. This
brings the idea of using external devices, which could be attached to the present vehicle
without changing the body. This thesis is based on the design, developments and numeral
calculation of the effects of external device, which will be spoiler that mounted at the rear
side of the vehicle to make the present vehicles more aerodynamically attractive.

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 Figure 3: Fuel energy uses at urban driving24

Figure 4: Fuel energy uses at highway driving24

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2.1.1 External Flow Phenomenon
Figure 5 shows the streamline of an external flow around a stationary vehicle. When the
vehicle is moving at a certain velocity, the viscous effects in the fluid are restricted to a thin
layer called boundary layer. Outside the
t boundary layer is in viscid flow. This fluid flow
imposes pressure force on the boundary layer. When the air reaches the rear part of the
vehicle, the fluid gets detached. Within the boundary layer, the movement of the fluid is
totally governed by the viscous effects of the fluid.

Figure 5: Streamline of external flow around vehicle

The Reynolds number is dependent on characteristic length of the vehicle, kinematic
viscosity and the speed of the vehicle. The fluid moving around the vehicle is dependen
dependent on
the shape of the vehicle and the Reynolds number. There is another important phenomenon,
which affects the flow of vehicle and the performance of the vehicle. This phenomenon is
commonly known as ‘Wake’ of the vehicle. When the air moving over the veh vehicle is
separated at the rear end, it leaves a large low-pressure
low pressure turbulent region behind the vehicle
known as the wake. This wake contributes to the formation of pressure drag, which is
eventually reduces the vehicle performance.

The major factors, which affect the flow field around the vehicle, are the boundary layers,
separation of flow field, friction drag and lastly the pressure drag.

2.1.2 Boundary Layer

Ludwig Prandtl first defined the aerodynamic boundary layer in a paper presented on August
12, 1904
04 at the third International Congress of Mathematicians in Heidelberg, Germany. This
allows aerodynamicists to simplify the equations of fluid flow by dividing the flow field into
two areas: one inside the boundary layer and the one outside the boundary layer. In this
boundary layer around the vehicle, the viscosity is dominant and it plays a major role in drag
of the vehicle. The viscosity is neglected in the fluid regions outside this boundary layer since
it does not have significant effect on the solution.
solut In the design of the body shape, the
boundary layer is given high attention to reduce drag. There are two reasons why designers
consider the boundary layer as a major factor in aerodynamic drag. The first is that the
boundary layer adds to the effective
effecti thickness body, through the displacement thickness,
hence increasing the pressure drag. The second reason is that the shear forces at the surface of

11
the vehicle causes skin friction drag, which arises from the friction of the fluid against the
skin of the object that is moving through it.

2.1.3 Flow Separation

During the flow over the surface of the vehicle, there are some points when the change in
velocity comes to stall and the fluid starts flowing in reverse direction. This phenomenon is
called ‘Separation’ of the fluid flow. This usually occurs at the rear part of the vehicle. This
separation is mostly dependent on the pressure distribution, which is imposed by the outer
layer of the flow. This separation causes the flow to change its behaviour behind the vehicle
and thereby affects the flow field around the vehicle. This phenomenon is the major factor to
be considered while studying the wake of the vehicle. Flow separation is bad because it leads
to a larger wake and less pressure on the rear surface which reducing pressure recovery. To
avoid bad flow separation, the transitions of the airflows from roof to the rear window need
to be smoothed. The bad separation also can create more drag. The aerodynamic will be more
effective if the flows working in clean air (laminar flow). By improving the aerodynamic of
the car can reduce the boundary layer thickness thus avoids worst flow separations.

2.1.4 Friction Drag

Every material or wall has a distinct friction, which resists the flow of fluids. Due to
molecular friction, a stress acts on every surface of the vehicle. The integration of the
corresponding force component in the free stream direction leads to a friction drag. If the
separation does not occur, then friction drag is one of the main reasons to cause overall drag.

2.1.5 Pressure Drag

Behind the vehicles, there is a steep pressure gradient, which leads to the separation of the
flow separation in viscous flow. The front part of the flow field shows high-pressure value,
whereas on the rear part flow separates leading to a high suction in the area. As we integrate
the force component created by such high change in pressure, the resultant is called as
‘Pressure Drag’. This factor is affected by the height of the vehicle as well as the separation
of the flow field.

2.1.6 Forces and Moment on Vehicle

When the vehicle is moving at a considerable speed, there are several forces are applied to
vehicle in different directions. Rolling resistance force is due the tires deforming when
contacting the surface of a road and varies depending on the surface being driven on. The
normal force is the force exerted by the road on the vehicle's tires. Because the vehicle is not
moving up or down (relative to the road), the magnitude of the normal forces equals the
magnitude of theforce due to gravity in the direction normal to the road.

Lift force acting on the vehicle body vertically. This force causes the vehicle to get lifted in
air as applied in the positive direction, whereas it can result in excessive wheel down force if
it is applied in negative direction. Engineers try to keep this value to a required limit to avoid
excess down force or lift. The formula usually used to define this force is written as:

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Where;

L : Lift coefficient

A : Frontal area of the vehicle

: Air density

V: Vehicle velocity

Aerodynamic drag force is the force acting on the vehicle body resisting its forward motion.
This force is an important force to be considered while designing the external body of the
vehicle, since it covers about 65% of the total force acting on the complete body. The
Aerodynamic drag force is calculated by the following formula:

Where;

: Air density

D : Drag coefficient

: Vehicle velocity

A : Frontal area of the vehicle

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3 Literature Review
Plentiful research works have been described in the literature on the aerodynamics of the road
vehicle. Nonetheless, limited work is reported with respect to the aerodynamic of the bus
when compared to those related to other heavy vehicle such as trucks or trailer.

Saltzman J Edwin [1] carried out study on decreasing the drag of buses. Their final model
was fortified with smoothed under body, rounded horizontal and vertical corners and
smoothed boat tail reached the required drag coefficient. With this they succeeded to achieve
low drag coefficient of 0.242 which is slightly less than trucking industry and US department
of energy goal of 0.25.

Figure 6.Position Showing rounded front angle.5

R. McCallen [2] investigated that removal of rear view mirror alone will reduce the drag of
vehicle by 4.5%. Also, adding device like flap drag device with the use of side skirt device
will reduce the drag by 22 to 25%. Gilhaus [3] study revealed a drop in a drag value until the
front leading edge radii value reaches to 150 mm. But further increase in radii value didn’t
affect the drag value. G W Carr [4] studied the effect of streamlining at the front end of the
rectangular bodies in ground proximity. It showed a streamlined front with low leading edge
will reduce to drag coefficient up to 0.21. H J Emmelmann [5] and W H Hucko [6]
investigated that detail shape optimization of elements such as rain channels, roof and
headlights will bring down the drag value.

Smoth and Diebler [7] made experimentally a ground research vehicle (GRV) to analyse and
study the drag on large scale heavy vehicles at subsonic speeds. They generally focused on
base drag of buses, trucks and other large scale vehicles. They showed preliminary results to
formulate a new base drag model, also the investigation into method of drag reduction by
manipulating fore-body drag.

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 Figure 7.Flow visualization test of GRV7
Yamin [8] utilised CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics), for simulation of external flow
analysis of a coach. He investigated that the steady state simulation can be used to increase
the aerodynamics characteristics of a coach. Abdel Aziz and Abdel Gawad [9] explored
experimentally and numerically the effect of front shape of a bus on the characteristics of the
flow field and heat transfer from the back of the bus. Their literature covered three bus
models with flat, inclined and curved front shapes. They stated that the front shape of the bus
affects its aerodynamic stability in driving tunnels. Also, they found that the cooling of
curved and inclined front shaped buses is better by 20% as compared to flat front bus.

Kale and Yelmule [10] studied experimentally and numerically the aerodynamics of the of
open window buses where comfort is provided by the motion of airflow. They investigated
that the overall drag reduction of about 30% can be achieved at 100 km/h by modifying bus
exterior body.

Z. Mohamed and A. Filippone [11] have studied the drag reduction devices for fuel saving
and retrofitted it heavy vehicles. They considered genuine on-road operations by creating
simulation of typical driving routes by considering long haul and urban distributions. They
stated that performance of aerodynamic devices depends on their functions and vehicle
operating condition so that vehicles on long hauls routes normally save twice as much fuel as
those driven in urban areas.

Patil, Shashishekar and Balsubramanian [12] performed flow simulation of bus which
modified with three different cases. In first case they have extended the boat end and made it
curved; in second case they have added panels at the rear side of the bus; in third case spoiler
is added at upper side at rear end, shown in following figure. They have investigated that drag
reduction up to 25.8% can be achieved with case 2 i.e. accompanying panels at rear end of
bus followed by case 3 (spoiler at rear end) with drag reduction of 24.5%. Their results show
that drag can be reduced without changing internal passenger space and with low cost.

15
 Case 1 Case 2 Case 3

Figure 8.Different Cases12

S Thorat and G P Rao[13] conducted a research on computational analysis of high floor
intercity bus. With improved aesthetics and exterior they have reduced the drag coefficient by
30%. G Buresti, G V Lungo and GLombardi [14] did a research on various methods to reduce
the drag coefficient of bluff bodies and their application to heavy vehicles. They identified
that, to reduce bluff body drag boat tailing has been applied and this will reduce the base drag
by 5% to 10%. Also flow-deflection and fairing devices are accommodated on the vehicle
which will reduce the base drag coefficient. They also mentioned that wheels of the vehicle
are in general source of aerodynamic drag. Therefore, in order to reduce the drag wheel
housings have been provided.

T. Marcus, R. Sharma and M.Kilduff, [15], investigated Aerodynamic effects of different

ventilation method. In this they have stated that there is increase in drag force by 2% if the
air-condition unit is placed at the back which is standard position. Moving the air condition
unit to the front of the bus reduces the drag by 11%. R. Arun, D. Rakesh and S.N. Sridhara
[16] have investigated the aerodynamic analysis of an intercity bus, in which they have
achieved lower drag of 0.29 by modifying the high floor sleeper coach which has drag
coefficient 0.53.

Figure 6: Chassis type and drag force of existing and new design bus16

16
S. David, E. Per, H. Linus and L. Lennart [17] studied the aerodynamics of wheel housing, in
which they have investigated several design parameter like reduced wheel housing opening
resulted in a reduction of drag coefficient. Also by utilising so-called wheel housing
ventilation, it is found that drag coefficient reduced significantly.

Figure 9.Wheel Housing Ventilation 17

Muthuvel A, M.K. Murthi, V.MKoshy and S. Sakthi [18] carried out study on aerodynamic
analysis of exterior body of buses. In this they have studied experimental and numerical
analysis of four bus models each having different exterior style and appearance including
base model. First bus is a base model. Second bus consists of a side tapering until the rear end
to deliver good streamlined flow. Third bus has modified with aerodynamically shaped front
and front spoiler. Fourth bus is aerodynamically shaped from both sides i.e. front and rear and
spoiler is added at the both front and rear with side tapering towards the rear end of bus.
These are shown in following figure 7.

Figure 10.Bus Prototypes18

17
They have stated that the least drag force was acting on model 4. Percentage drag force
reduction was found to be 30% to 34% between bus 1 and bus 4. This leads to get better fuel
efficiency which is shown in following table 1.

Bus Number 80 km/h 105 km/h 113 km/h

1 21.35 30 31.97
4 19.56 24.21 26
Fuel Savings 1.79 5.79 6.47
(100km/h)
Table 1.Fuel Consumption per 100 km18

J. Abinesh and J Arunkumar [19] investigated CFD analysis of aerodynamic drag reduction
of Volvo bus to improve fuel economy. They modified exterior of the base model by
considering aerodynamic aspects and parameter, such as frontal top area changed to curved
shape and air-conditioning unit is placed at the front to get smooth air flow around it. Also,
they changed the rear bottom shape and side view mirror shape which is shown in following
figure 8,

(Source http://www.gaadi.com/buses/model-volvo_9400_multi_axle volvo)

Figure 11.Volvo Intercity 9400 Base Model & Modified Model 19

Total drag reduction of 10% is obtained with this modified model and total fuel savings of
11.7 Litre/h can be achieved. Their results are shown below,

Parameter Original Modified

Drag Coefficient 0.8 0.7
Fuel Consumption 70 58.3
Table 2.Drag Coefficient and Fuel Consumption19

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E. A. Mohamed, N. R.Muhammad and A.F. Gawad[20] carried out computational and
analytical investigation of aerodynamic characteristics and drag reduction of a Mercedes
Benz Travego Coach. In which they have stated that adding a spoiler at rear end of a bus and
making front and rear end of the bus curvy will help itself to reduce total drag by 14%. Also
fuel saving of 5.618litre/hr can be achieved. Though it is not good number, but still it
represents good achievement. Modified model and their result are shown below,

Source http://www.truck1.eu/buses/coaches/mercedes_benz_travego_r1_m-a993501.html

Figure 12.Mercedes Benz Travego and Its Modified Model20

Parameter Original Modified

Drag Coefficient 0.698 0.602
Fuel Consumption (Litre/hr) 66.88 61.26
20
Table 3.Drag Coefficient and Fuel Consumption

4 Methodologies

4.1 CAD Designing

The baseline and modified models of Bustech’sXdi 12.5m are created into a CAD software.
Solidworks is used to make cad models. Design of baseline model is shown in following
figure,

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 Figure 13: Baseline Model

4.2 CFD Analysis

CAD models are imported to ANSYS Workbench for CFD simulation. Every step by step
procedure in CAD are discussed below,

4.2.1 Creation of Fluid Domain

Fluid domain created after importing bus model into the ANSYS. The size of the fluid
domain has to be 4-55 times of the vehicle. General size of bus and designed fluid domain is
given below,

Length Height Width

Bus 12.5m 2.95m 2.5m
Wind Tunnel 48m 10.5m 12m
Table 3: Dimension of wind Tunnel and Bus

4.2.2 Meshing
Mesh generation is the one of the most important steps during the pre-process
pre process stage after the
definition of the domain geometry. CFD needs the subdivision of the domain into a chunk of
smaller, non-overlapping sub--domains
domains in order to solve the flow physics within the domain
geometry which has been created; this results in the generation of
of a mesh (or grid) of cells
(elements or control volumes) overlaying the whole domain geometry. The collections of the
sub-domains
domains are called as Meshing. The essential fluid flows that are described in each of
these cells are usually solved numerically so that the discrete values of the flow properties
such as the velocity, pressure, temperature, and other transport parameters of interest are
determined. This yields the CFD solution to the flow problem that is being solved. The
accuracy of a CFD solution is is governed by the number of cells in the mesh within the
computational domain. In general, the provision of a large number of cells leads to the
attainment of an accurate solution. However, the accuracy of a solution is strongly dependent

20
on the imposed limitations
mitations dominated by the computational costs and calculation turnover
times. To know the turbulence accurately the mesh should be grid independent and also it
should be fine as much as possible especially at the boundary layer.

Mesh Sizing

The mesh size of all the surface of the bus body has been taken 0.095.. The element of sizing
is kept soft for smooth
mooth transition between the coarse to fine elements of the bus model. The
inflation is created on the body domain and on the surface of bus body. The inflatio
inflation to first
layer thickness is 0.000176 and maximum layer are 16. The formula used by ANSYS to
calculate the first layer thickness height (y1) is given below,

Figure 14: Bus meshing

4.2.3 Boundary Conditionss (Setup)

The complex nature of fluid flow behaviour is important implications in which boundary
conditions are prescribed for the flow problem. A CFD user needs to define appropriate
conditions that imitate the real physical representation of the fluid flow into a solvable CFD
problem. Every different
rent setup of the CFD domain needs to have an initialization, which is
fulfilled by the boundary conditions input. The CFD code usually has this facility to define
the boundary conditions of the CFD problem, where each cells at specific boundary are given
finite values.

In this report, the boundary conditions have been created for every face
face of the domain and for
the bus as well.. The various boundary types and their locations are as shown in table given
below.

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 Name Boundary Type Location Boundry Details
Inlet Inlet Inlet Normal speed 27.78,
Turbulence: Medium
(Intrensity=5%)
Outlet Outlet Outlet Avg, Static Pressure=
0Pa
Ground Wall Ground
Far Field Opening Sky, side planes Turbulence: Zero
Gradient Mass &
Momentum:
Entrainment
Bus wall Bus Wall U=
27.78m/s,W=0
Table 4: Boundary conditions

Figure 15: Setup

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For flow analysis, the material of the air must be defined first. Following material properties
of air are used in this project,

Properties
Air Temperature 25oc
Density 1.185 [kg m^
m^-3]
Dynamic Viscosity 1.831e-05
05 [kg m^
m^-1 s^-1]
Turbulence K- epsilon
Table 5: Air properties

4.2.4 Solution
The appropriate usage of either an in-house
in house or a commercial CFD codecommands the core
understanding of the underlying numerical aspects inside the CFDsolver. This section focuses
on the treatment
reatment of the solver element. To obtain steady state solution for this project to get
drag coefficient 100 iterations are used. The other solver control basic settings were left to
default.

Figure 16: Solution

4.2.5 Results
Commercial CFD codes such as ANSYS® Inc. and others softwares often incorporate
impressive visualization tools within their user friendly GUIs to allow users to graphically
view the results of a CFD calculation at the end of a computational simulation.

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5 Case Description
The governing motivation for this study is to investigate the possibility to reduce the overall
drag by changing exterior design and implementing devices like wheels covers. In order to
prove this theory a number of cases with different geometric setups must be done, but some
limitations must be considered otherwise an infinite number of cases have to be simulated. In
this research project baseline and four modified model are made.

5.1 Elements and Concepts Utilised in Modification of Bus

5.1.1 Wheel Flaps
Providing a wheel flap on outer side of the wheel hosing will decrease the air flow going
inside the wheel hosing which results in less turbulent flow around wheels and in the area of
the wheels. Wheel flaps are shown in figure 17.

Dimensions

Inner Diameter 1061mm

Outer Diameter 1160mm

Width 50mm

Figure 17 Wheel flaps Table No 6: Dimensions

5.1.2 Wheel housing Ventilation

Wheel housing of the road vehicle are, in general also a source of considerable drag,
therefore in order to reduce such drag wheel housing ventilation have been provided. As
discussed in literature review above, by providing wheels housing ventilation drag force can
be reduced. Wheel housing ventilation made in this case is shown in figure 18. Providing this
wheel ventilation will reduce the air pressure faced by housing and will divert the air flow
from wheel hosing to surrounding of the bus.

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 Figure 18: Wheel housing ventilation

Dimensions

a 370mm

b 550mm

c 150mm

d (depth) 100

Table No 7: Dimensions of wheel housing ventilation

5.1.3 Front Spoiler

As discussed in literature review above using a spoiler leap at the front can also reduce the
coefficient of the drag. The design of the spoiler is shown in following figure 19.

25
 Figure 19: Front spoiler

5.1.4 Wheel Covers

Figure 20: Wheel Cover

Covering wheels with wheel cover also helps to reduce the drag force as it covers the gap
between rims and spokes of the wheel. However, there is one finding by A. Vdovin [22]
investigated, rims with thicker outer radius of wheel was slightly efficient with good
performance than wheels with fully covered rims. He carried out investigation of passenger
car wheel, so it may differ in this case of bus. Hence, more investigation will be required to
decide which type wheel will be better for bus. In this project wheels are designed with wheel
covers as rims with thicker outer radius will increase the overall weight of the tyre which
results in decrease in bus performance also wheel cover conceals the gap between wheel rim
and tyre, so that there will not be any turbulence around the wheels.

26
 Figure 21: Wheels without wheel cover and Wheel with wheel cover

5.1.5 Air Curtain

Front area of the bus tends to increase drag, so providing air curtain on the frontal surface
area will reduce the bus drag. In this narrow channels are provided to speed up the air stream
and guide it along the bus. It is shown below in figure 22,

Figure 22: Air curtains at front surface of the bus

5.2 Modelling
5.2.1 Baseline Model
This model is the baseline model that means the actual BustechXdi 12.5m model design in
presence. Figure 23, shows the baseline model.

27
 Figure 23: Baseline model

5.2.2 Modified Model 1

Figure 24: Modified model 1

In the modified model 1, front surface of the baseline model which is flat is changed to
curved shape and wheel flaps are attached to wheel housing.

5.2.3 Modified Model 2

Modified modelss 2 only consist of wheel housing ventilation which is added to only front two
wheel housing rest is same as modified model 1.

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 Figure 25: Modified model 2

5.2.4 Modified Model 3

Just spoiler is added at the front rest of the design is same as Modified Model 3

Figure 26: Modified model 3

5.2.5 Modified Model 4

Model 4 consist of air curtains at the front surface of the bus but in this model spoiler is not
added and the rest is similar to modified model 2.

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 Figure 27:Modified Model 4

6 Results and Analysis

In this project baseline model and four modified models are created and tested at four
different speeds such as 100km/h, 80km/h, 60km/h and 40 km/h respectively. Results of these
models are discussed below,

6.1 Results and Discussion

6.1.1 Baseline model at 100km/h
Pressure contour plot on the bus body plot at 100 km/h is shown in figure 28. It can be seen
that frontal area of the bus faces the maximum pressure; the air cannot flow freely and is
obstructed by the front surface as front surface is flat.

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 Figure 28: Pressure on baseline model at 100km/h

Figure 29: 3D streamline plot around baseline model at 100km/h

In addition, it is observed that air flow has become more turbulent at the top and the upper
side of the wheels, also wake formation at the rear of the bus has a large turbulent region
caused flow separation. The drag coefficients and drag forces obtained at different speeds for
the baseline model are shown in following table 8.

Speed (km/h) Drag Force (N) Drag coefficient

100 3014.11 0.89
80 1928.71 0.57
60 1084.92 0.32
40 482.225 0.14
Table 8: Baseline model drag force and drag coefficient at different speeds

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6.1.2 Modified Model 1 at 100km/h
It can be seen that from following figure, making front face curved has reduced the pressure
faced by the front surface of bus also turbulence at the front top of the bus is vanished by
making front surface curved.

Figure 30: Pressure on modified model 1 at 100km/h

Figure 31:3D streamline plot around modified model 1 at 100km/h

Adding wheel flaps have reduced successfully, air flow turbulence which is going in upward
direction, also it has reduced the turbulence concentration at back side of the bus but there is
small vortex formation at front side next wheel flaps. The drag force experienced by this
model is 2746.97N and drag coefficient is reduced by 8.8%. Drag force and drag coefficient
of this modell at various speeds are described in following table,

Speed (km/h) Drag Force (N) Drag coefficient

100 2746.97 0.81
80 1758.11 0.52
60 989.199 0.29
40 439.882 0.13
Table 9: Modified model 1, drag force and drag coefficient at different speeds

32
Drag coefficient has successfully reduced at different speeds as compared to baseline model.
At 80km/h drag force is reduced by 170.6N.

6.1.3 Modified Model 2 at 100km/h

In this model wheel ventilation is added at the front two wheel housing. It has not fabrica
fabricated
at rear wheels as the engine is accommodated at rear side. Adding wheel housing have air
flow laminar around the bus which results in reducing static pressure faced by the front of the
bus.

Figure 32. : Pressure on modified model 2 at 100km/h

The small vortex formed in modified model 1 has vanished completely, on adding of wheel
housing ventilation as shown in figure 33. But formation of wake at the rear of the bus has
become more turbulent. However, this model has reduced the drag force and drag ccoefficient
effectively. Drag force with 2706.37N is experienced by this model with drag coefficient of
0.80. Drag force and drag coefficient of this model at various speeds are given in table 10.

33
 Figure 33: 3D streamline plot around modified model 2 at 100km/h
100km/h

Figure 34: Velocity vector plot of modified model 2 at 100km/h

Speed (km/h) Drag Force (N) Drag coefficient
100 2706.37 0.80
80 1732.17 0.51
60 974.67 0.28
40 439.882 0.12
Table 10: Modified model 2, drag force and drag coefficient at different speeds

6.1.4 Modified Model 3 at 100km/h

Spoiler is added in this model at the front side of the bus. In this case drag force is decreased
as compare to baseline model but drag force is increased deliberately as compare to other
model i.e. modified
ed model 1 and model 2. As addiction of spoiler increase the front area of
the bus which causes increase in pressure at the front side. From figure 35 it can be seen that
air becomes more turbulent in region of spoiler it becomes more turbulent as compare to
velocity vector plot of model 2.

34
 Figure 35: Velocity vector plot of modified model 3 at 100km/h

Figure 36: 3D streamline plot around modified model 3 at 100km/h

Also from figure 36 it can noticed that air flow becomes more concentrated in the wake
which
hich causes to increase in negative pressure at rear end of the wake region thus flow
surrounding the bus moves into wake and it becomes more turbulent which reduced the speed
of the bus. Thus, increase in drag force of the bus. Drag coefficient increases by 3.75% as
compared to drag coefficient modified model 2. Drag force and drag coefficient are given in
following table,

Speed (km/h) Drag Force (N) Drag coefficient

100 2815.54 0.83
80 1801.82 0.53
60 1013.69 0.30
40 450.67 0.13
Table 11: Modified model 3, drag force and drag coefficient at different speeds

6.1.5 Modified Model 4 at 100km/h

Modified model 4 is ideal solution of this project. It has deliberately reduced the drag force
and drag coefficient. In this model, spoiler is removed because of its disadvantage and air
curtains are added at the front area of the bus.The
bus.The Air Curtain reduces drag on the body shell
in a very simple, but extremely effective way. Two narrowing channels guide the airstream
through the front apron and past the side of bus which lessens the pressure and delivers
smooth air flow around bus.

Maximum static pressure faced by the baseline model is 508.8 Pa, modified model is 506.4
Pa and by this model is 471.9 Pa which means it has nearly reduced pressure by 90.9 Pa. Also
it reduces the concentration of airflow in the wake region as compared to baseline model. The
drag force experienced by this model is 2683.37N and drag coefficient is 0.79. It reduces the
drag coefficient by 12.6% and 1.26% as compare to base model and modif modified model 2
respectively. Drag coefficient of this model and modified model 2 are nearly same at speed of
60 km/h and 40 km/h. The drag coefficients and drag forces obtained at different speeds for
the modified model 4 are shown in following table 12.

35
 Figure 37: Pressure on modified model 4 at 100km/h

Figure 38:: 3D streamline plot around modified model 4 at 100km/h

Speed (km/h) Drag Force (N) Drag coefficient

100 2683.37 0.79
80 1717.47 0.50
60 966.45 0.28
40 429.83 0.12
Table 12: Modified model 4, drag force and drag coefficient at different speeds

6.2 Comparison
son of Baseline Model and Modified Model 4
Satisfactory results are obtained with modified model 4. Comparison of baseline model and
modified model 4 on the basis of drag coefficient are shown
s below,

Speed (km/h) Baseline (CD) Modified Model 4 Decrease in CD (%)

(CD)

36
 40 0.14 0.12 16.66
60 0.32 0.28 14.28
80 0.57 0.50 14
100 0.89 0.79 12.65
Table 13: Comparison of Baseline Model and Modified Model 4

0.8

0.6 Baseline
0.4 Model 4

0.2

0
40 60 80 100

Graph 1: Drag coefficient V/s Speed

6.3 Power and Fuel Savings

Here power and fuel savings of modified model 4 are calculated as it has given the good
results in terms of drag coefficient. It is calculated with following equations,

Power Savings,

Psavings = (FD(baseline) – FD(model 4))* Vbus

Fuel Savings,

ṁfuel= Psavings / QLHV *ρfuel* ƞengine

Power savings and fuel saving are calculated for modified model 4 at four different speed and
given following table,

Speed (km/h) Power Saving (W) Fuel Saving (gal/h)

40 1455.36 0.07758
60 3291.06 0.1754
80 5868.24 0.3128
100 9187.95 0.4858
Table 14: Power and fuel savings of modified model 4 at different speeds

37
7 Conclusions
The motivation for this study is to discover a clear trend by implementing different methods
in order to reduce the resisting drag force. In the process of redesigning, exterior styling with
improved aerodynamics of existing bus, a detailed computational analysis has been done.

The five types of bus have been modelled including baseline model for performing numerical
analysis using CFD software. A trend is investigated by observing the baseline model and
four different modified models by altering the exterior structure of bus. Baseline model is
existing Xdi 12.5m and four models are altered and modified with existing bus. Five case
studies were investigated and the reduction in drag force and fuel were recorded.

Based on the results and discussions of the previous sections, the following concluding points
can be stated:

 The modified model 4 with provision of air curtains, gives the best drag reduction of
14% at speed of 80 km/h and 12.65% at speed of 100 km/h. This gives fuel savings
around 0.4858 gal/h.
 The proposed curvature at the frontal surface, air curtains and wheel housing
ventilation can be accepted from the economic points of view. This modification is
easy to implement less costly and it does not affect the body or structure of the bus.
 The using of frontal spoiler proved to be inefficient technique. The idea of creating
high pressure in the region of spoiler to deviate smooth airflow underneath and to the
side of the bus did not succeed. This may be attributed to the relatively high ground
clearance of the bus or incorrect design of spoiler.Thus, the drag forces increased in
modified model 3.
 Other ideas may be considered in future investigations such as, adding a diffuser
underneath the bus, designing of air foiled shaped mirror and designing detail model
of bus to get correct drag force.

38
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