In recent years a renewed interest in platooning has emerged due to increasing pressure on vehicle manufacturers to reduce greenhouse gas emissions of their fleets. Vehicles traveling in close proximity have been studied in some depth, particularly simplified bodies and North American trucks. Still, there is a lack of understanding of the benefits of platooning for European style trucks. In this study, experiments were undertaken using two 1:6 scale detailed cab over engine tractor-trailer models in a wind tunnel with a moving ground. Surface pressures were measured on both trucks, while force measurements were taken on the model placed on the belt. Inter-vehicle distance, lateral offset, and yaw conditions were varied. Results show that a reduction of drag for the platoon is seen as the inter-vehicle distance decreases. For the leading truck, the reduction is due to an increased base pressure caused by the truck behind. The trailing truck has a more complex behavior and is sensitive to yaw changes. At short inter-vehicle distances, the leading truck loses in performance with a lateral offset, while the trailing truck gains in performance if under yaw conditions. To aid the flow analysis, numerical simulations were undertaken for some conditions studied experimentally.

近年来，由于对汽车制造商减少其车队温室气体排放的压力越来越大，人们对排灯产生了新的兴趣。已经深入研究了近距离行驶的车辆，特别是简化的车身和北美卡车。但是，仍然缺乏对欧洲卡车排成排的好处的了解。在这项研究中，实验是使用两个1：6比例的详细驾驶室在地面移动的风洞中对发动机牵引车-拖车模型进行的。在两辆卡车上都测量了表面压力，而对放置在皮带上的模型进行了力测量。车辆之间的距离，横向偏移和偏航条件均发生变化。结果表明，随着车距的减小，排的阻力减小。对于领先的卡车，减少的原因是卡车后面的基本压力增加。牵引卡车的行为更为复杂，并且对偏航变化敏感。在较短的车距之间，如果在偏航条件下，前排卡车的性能会出现横向偏移，而后排卡车的性能会有所提高。为了帮助进行流量分析，对一些实验条件进行了数值模拟。