I've got your inflatable boat tail right here.

[freebeard]

Maybe we need Sheppard77 to chime in.

He's welcome of course, but it's my thread and I say it's not about shipping containers (the floors in those things are full of nasty cr*p), it's about active aerodynamics.

It's also permissible to talk about the wheel bogeys on the dumper.

[kach22i]

Well, it's been settled that the width is at a minimum questionable.

The other claims are also questionable.

The Bionic Chameleon Truck | Yanko Design

This bionic cargo transport uses an innovative segmented body remarkably like that of a centipede. This enables the truck to adjust its size to the cargo load. The resilient soft tarpaulin shelled body is strong enough to protect its cargo but also absorbs impacts in case of accidents. As an added benefit fuel savings abound since the truck’s weight is slashed in half.

Terrible aerodynamics, but they didn't even attempt to deceive there with a claim.

A packaging study, but it fails the smell test.

EDIT: link to the designer's bio, he's an instructor, does some outside work.

Haishan Deng | Cleveland Institute of Art College of Art | 800.223.4700

Грузовик будущего: The Chameleon и Super Tipper Truck от Haishan Deng (обзор и фото) | Steer.ru




The rear track narrows, or should I say the front is wider, making our width discussion even more relevant.

[Xist]

Plywood?

Active aerodynamics would help shipping containers, too. Or even passive aerodynamics. Giant sheets of coroplast? That is a potential 10% improvement!

[kach22i]

Originally Posted by Xist

Plywood?

Active aerodynamics would help shipping containers, too. Or even passive aerodynamics. Giant sheets of coroplast? That is a potential 10% improvement!

Stretch wrapping some vinyl would help, and be cheap too.

Heavy Duty 1000d*1000d 30*30 Glossy Tarp Truck Side Curtain - Buy High Quality Side Curtains,Truck Side Curtain,Tarp Product on Alibaba.com

[seifrob]

Originally Posted by freebeard

Well, I guess the implausibility of swallowing a shipping container falsifies the notion of an articulated spine and flexible membranes...(snip)

The morality of the story lies in fact, that if the author of this design study did not see the obvious problem with excessive width of this creation, he probably was uniformly oblivious to other, finer mechanical aspects.

Imho it should be hard shell. Any type of fabric would need to be stretched to prevent excessive fluttering and fluttering induced drag.

[freebeard]

Can fluttering be surpressed by an open mesh? It seems like it would damp out the pressure differential on the two sides that drive the fluttering.

In any case the solar moped is a hard shell solution.

I'm suspicious of interference drag between the spine and the fabric. The only thing to lose by inverting the arrangement is the insectoid look.

Not to mention the open pie-cuts on the bottom.

I had the opportunity to talk with aerohead in Odgen about streamlining a shipping container. When I touch the 3D modeling app, I'll post the result here.

[Grant-53]

We ship lots of bulk produce from our region by tractor trailers. Many have open tops covered by canvas supported by transverse ribs. Very little flutter when taunt.

[Hersbird]

Sort of related/unrelated. We were visiting my cousin who drives flatbed trucks usually full of MDF or plywood while he happened to be stopping at a local mill while they loaded his truck. I couldn't believe how long it took to both load and then tarp the load, what a waste of productive driving time IMO. So a truck that could "swallow" a load (OMG I need to rethink that line!) may not help aerowise but could lead to better productivity. The open sided trailer with tarp sides would help quicken the tarping, which seemed to take an hour for the guy ahead of my cousin, but then it forces an aerodynamic height that is higher than necessary for heavy loads like metal and plywood that can't be stacked that high. It would be cool if the trailer that swallowed the load (there it is again) could automatically collapse or adjust itself to the best possible shape.

What will probably happen sooner are trucks either self driving or computer assisted that could from road trains driving inches apart. Then they could draft like a freight train on rails, they could even add a specific boat tailed trailer to bring up the rear or a special cab leaving all the other trucks to be as boxy as they want, actually the boxier the better so they had less gaps.

[Xist]

They could have a loaded conex ready and waiting and it is relatively easy to load shipping containers.

We transported some of those in Afghanistan, but more trucks and trailers with removable flatbeds. We were supposed to drop off one flatbed, pick up another, and roll, but instead we spent at least half an hour, and often much longer.

By the way, my exes are crazy.

[Hersbird]

Originally Posted by Xist

They could have a loaded conex ready and waiting and it is relatively easy to load shipping containers.

We transported some of those in Afghanistan, but more trucks and trailers with removable flatbeds. We were supposed to drop off one flatbed, pick up another, and roll, but instead we spent at least half an hour, and often much longer.

By the way, my exes are crazy.

I don't think these big MDF bundles could have been loaded into a shipping container. They needed to be loaded from the side by large forklifts. One on one side, then one in the other, probably to keep it from tipping. Probably not a common type of load overall though. Not a giant mill either, they probably aren't filling 20 trucks per day so it's not worth spending big bucks on something besides a good old forklift and flatbed trailers. It would drive me nuts as a driver waiting though.