TY - JOUR

T1 - Analysis of the dynamic air conditioning loads, fuel consumption and emissions of heavy-duty trucks with different glazing and paint optical properties

AU - Vale, João P

AU - Alves, Pedro G

AU - Neves, Soraia F

AU - Nybo, Lars

AU - Flouris, Andreas D

AU - Sotto Mayor, Tiago

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2021 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

PY - 2022

Y1 - 2022

N2 - The European transportation sector employs 10 million people and accounts for 4.6% of the European Union GDP. Due to climate change, this workforce is increasingly affected by high temperatures and radiant loads, particularly during summer. They rely on air conditioning (AC) to minimize heat inside the truck cabins, increasing fuel consumption and tailpipe emissions. Because sustainable transportation is crucial for climate change mitigation, we developed a numerical investigation on the dynamic thermal exchanges of cabins of heavy-duty trucks in realistic conditions of a summer workday, to quantify the potential impact of interventions in the glazing and paint optical properties, over the truck AC loads. We observed that the changes in air temperature and solar irradiation throughout the workday imply substantial variations in the truck’s AC loads and, consequently, in its fuel consumption and tailpipe emissions. Furthermore, windshields and side windows with transmissivity of 0.33 instead of typical 0.79 and 0.84, respectively, can reduce AC loads by up to 16%. External paints with reflectivity of 0.70 instead of 0.04 can reduce the AC loads by up to 30%, whereas cumulative changes to glazing and paint can reduce the AC load by up to 40%. These interventions can lower fuel consumption and emissions by up to 0.4%. These results show that important improvements in fuel efficiency and tailpipe emissions are possible, if the research community, policy makers and industry stakeholders successfully promote the adaptation of the European transportation fleet.

AB - The European transportation sector employs 10 million people and accounts for 4.6% of the European Union GDP. Due to climate change, this workforce is increasingly affected by high temperatures and radiant loads, particularly during summer. They rely on air conditioning (AC) to minimize heat inside the truck cabins, increasing fuel consumption and tailpipe emissions. Because sustainable transportation is crucial for climate change mitigation, we developed a numerical investigation on the dynamic thermal exchanges of cabins of heavy-duty trucks in realistic conditions of a summer workday, to quantify the potential impact of interventions in the glazing and paint optical properties, over the truck AC loads. We observed that the changes in air temperature and solar irradiation throughout the workday imply substantial variations in the truck’s AC loads and, consequently, in its fuel consumption and tailpipe emissions. Furthermore, windshields and side windows with transmissivity of 0.33 instead of typical 0.79 and 0.84, respectively, can reduce AC loads by up to 16%. External paints with reflectivity of 0.70 instead of 0.04 can reduce the AC loads by up to 30%, whereas cumulative changes to glazing and paint can reduce the AC load by up to 40%. These interventions can lower fuel consumption and emissions by up to 0.4%. These results show that important improvements in fuel efficiency and tailpipe emissions are possible, if the research community, policy makers and industry stakeholders successfully promote the adaptation of the European transportation fleet.

KW - Air conditioning loads

KW - Fuel consumption

KW - Heavy-duty trucks

KW - Optical properties

KW - Tailpipe emissions

U2 - 10.1080/15568318.2021.1949079

DO - 10.1080/15568318.2021.1949079

M3 - Journal article

AN - SCOPUS:85114446872

VL - 16

SP - 887

EP - 900

JO - International Journal of Sustainable Transportation

JF - International Journal of Sustainable Transportation

SN - 1556-8318

IS - 10

ER -