Big Rig Redesign Still Going Strong

By Tiffany Trader

August 26, 2013

Long haul tractor trailers are a fixture of the American landscape, delivering all manner of supplies from one end of the country to the other. The estimated 1.3 million Class 8 long-haul trucks on this country’s roadways carry approximately 70 percent of all freight and use more than 20 percent of all fuel consumed in the US. Big rigs are essential to the country’s economy, but there is a price to pay in the form of a big environmental footprint. Most trucks only get about 6 miles to the gallon and altogether they emit about 423 million pounds of CO2 into the atmosphere each year.

Supercomputing simulations at Oak Ridge National Laboratory enabled SmartTruck Systems engineers to develop the UnderTray System, some components of which are shown here. The system dramatically reduces drag – and increases fuel mileage – in long-haul trucks. Image credit: Michael Matheson, Oak Ridge National Laboratory

An HPC-developed technology is helping to save billions of gallons of fuel each year. In 2011, South Carolina-based BMI Corp. partnered with researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) to develop the SmartTruck UnderTray System, “a set of integrated aerodynamic fairings that improve the aerodynamics of 18-wheeler (Class 8) long-haul trucks.” After installation, the typical big rig can expect to achieve a fuel savings of between 7 and 12 percent, amounting to $5,000 annual savings in fuel costs.

The effort has been going strong since 2011. Last week, the Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility (OLCF) announced that BMI-offshoot SmartTruck Systems has sold more than 25,000 UnderTray Systems to trucking fleets in North America.

Mike Henderson, chief executive officer and founder of BMI and SmartTruck’s Chief Scientist observes: “If all of the 1.3 million Class 8 trucks in the country were configured with just the minimum package of new components, the U.S. could annually save almost 1.5 billion gallons of diesel fuel, reduce CO2 by 16.5 million tons and save more than $6 billion in fuel costs.”

Simulating a technology like this requires some heavy-duty HPC smarts. That’s what led SmartTruck engineers to the Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility and the Cray Jaguar supercomputer. Using the National Aeronautics and Space Administration application code, they studied the airflow around the 18-wheelers and identified a way to significantly reduce drag through the addition of an aftermarket component. With Jaguar, the time it took to model these components went from days (using a modest in-house cluster) to mere hours. BMI/SmartTruck was able to go from concept to production in just 18 months instead of the 3.5 years it had anticipated.

Recently SmartTruck president Mike Henderson revealed the company was tapping the HPC resources of another OLCF machine, Titan (the new-and-improved Jaguar). Henderson needs to ensure that trucks passing through California satisfy state air quality laws. Specifically, the law requires that all trucks are outfitted with low rolling resistance tires and other aerodynamic devices to boost fuel efficiency. Solving these problems takes complex simulations paired with the most powerful supercomputers.

SmartTruck’s bold plans are part of a national push to create more fuel-efficient vehicles. The Department of Energy’s Super Truck Program, for example, aims to improve the fuel mileage of Class 8 trucks by 50 percent by 2015. Given the current average of 5.5 to 6.5 MPG, a 50 percent increase could save about $25,000 annually per truck (based on traveling 120,000 miles per year), which would reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 35 percent for each truck.

SmartTruck, which currently employes more than 25 employees, has doubled in size each year since 2011. According to the recent announcement from OLCF, “UnderTray Systems have a quick payback period and a favorable return on investment, so fleets have strong incentive to upgrade trailers with the components, which are manufactured entirely in the USA and are 100 percent recyclable.”

Related Content

Manufacturing Fuels Supercomputing Growth

East Bound And Down, Loaded Up And Truckin’

Designing a Smart Truck with the Power of Jaguar

DOE Supercomputer Helps Design More Efficient Big Rigs

Subscribe to HPCwire's Weekly Update!

Be the most informed person in the room! Stay ahead of the tech trends with industry updates delivered to you every week!

Nvidia’s New Blackwell GPU Can Train AI Models with Trillions of Parameters

March 18, 2024

Nvidia's latest and fastest GPU, code-named Blackwell, is here and will underpin the company's AI plans this year. The chip offers performance improvements from its predecessors, including the red-hot H100 and A100 GPUs. Read more…

Nvidia Showcases Quantum Cloud, Expanding Quantum Portfolio at GTC24

March 18, 2024

Nvidia’s barrage of quantum news at GTC24 this week includes new products, signature collaborations, and a new Nvidia Quantum Cloud for quantum developers. While Nvidia may not spring to mind when thinking of the quant Read more…

2024 Winter Classic: Meet the HPE Mentors

March 18, 2024

The latest installment of the 2024 Winter Classic Studio Update Show features our interview with the HPE mentor team who introduced our student teams to the joys (and potential sorrows) of the HPL (LINPACK) and accompany Read more…

Houston We Have a Solution: Addressing the HPC and Tech Talent Gap

March 15, 2024

Generations of Houstonian teachers, counselors, and parents have either worked in the aerospace industry or know people who do - the prospect of entering the field was normalized for boys in 1969 when the Apollo 11 missi Read more…

Apple Buys DarwinAI Deepening its AI Push According to Report

March 14, 2024

Apple has purchased Canadian AI startup DarwinAI according to a Bloomberg report today. Apparently the deal was done early this year but still hasn’t been publicly announced according to the report. Apple is preparing Read more…

Survey of Rapid Training Methods for Neural Networks

March 14, 2024

Artificial neural networks are computing systems with interconnected layers that process and learn from data. During training, neural networks utilize optimization algorithms to iteratively refine their parameters until Read more…

Nvidia’s New Blackwell GPU Can Train AI Models with Trillions of Parameters

March 18, 2024

Nvidia's latest and fastest GPU, code-named Blackwell, is here and will underpin the company's AI plans this year. The chip offers performance improvements from Read more…

Nvidia Showcases Quantum Cloud, Expanding Quantum Portfolio at GTC24

March 18, 2024

Nvidia’s barrage of quantum news at GTC24 this week includes new products, signature collaborations, and a new Nvidia Quantum Cloud for quantum developers. Wh Read more…

Houston We Have a Solution: Addressing the HPC and Tech Talent Gap

March 15, 2024

Generations of Houstonian teachers, counselors, and parents have either worked in the aerospace industry or know people who do - the prospect of entering the fi Read more…

Survey of Rapid Training Methods for Neural Networks

March 14, 2024

Artificial neural networks are computing systems with interconnected layers that process and learn from data. During training, neural networks utilize optimizat Read more…

PASQAL Issues Roadmap to 10,000 Qubits in 2026 and Fault Tolerance in 2028

March 13, 2024

Paris-based PASQAL, a developer of neutral atom-based quantum computers, yesterday issued a roadmap for delivering systems with 10,000 physical qubits in 2026 a Read more…

India Is an AI Powerhouse Waiting to Happen, but Challenges Await

March 12, 2024

The Indian government is pushing full speed ahead to make the country an attractive technology base, especially in the hot fields of AI and semiconductors, but Read more…

Charles Tahan Exits National Quantum Coordination Office

March 12, 2024

(March 1, 2024) My first official day at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) was June 15, 2020, during the depths of the COVID-19 loc Read more…

AI Bias In the Spotlight On International Women’s Day

March 11, 2024

What impact does AI bias have on women and girls? What can people do to increase female participation in the AI field? These are some of the questions the tech Read more…

Alibaba Shuts Down its Quantum Computing Effort

November 30, 2023

In case you missed it, China’s e-commerce giant Alibaba has shut down its quantum computing research effort. It’s not entirely clear what drove the change. Read more…

Nvidia H100: Are 550,000 GPUs Enough for This Year?

August 17, 2023

The GPU Squeeze continues to place a premium on Nvidia H100 GPUs. In a recent Financial Times article, Nvidia reports that it expects to ship 550,000 of its lat Read more…

Analyst Panel Says Take the Quantum Computing Plunge Now…

November 27, 2023

Should you start exploring quantum computing? Yes, said a panel of analysts convened at Tabor Communications HPC and AI on Wall Street conference earlier this y Read more…

Shutterstock 1285747942

AMD’s Horsepower-packed MI300X GPU Beats Nvidia’s Upcoming H200

December 7, 2023

AMD and Nvidia are locked in an AI performance battle – much like the gaming GPU performance clash the companies have waged for decades. AMD has claimed it Read more…

DoD Takes a Long View of Quantum Computing

December 19, 2023

Given the large sums tied to expensive weapon systems – think $100-million-plus per F-35 fighter – it’s easy to forget the U.S. Department of Defense is a Read more…

Synopsys Eats Ansys: Does HPC Get Indigestion?

February 8, 2024

Recently, it was announced that Synopsys is buying HPC tool developer Ansys. Started in Pittsburgh, Pa., in 1970 as Swanson Analysis Systems, Inc. (SASI) by John Swanson (and eventually renamed), Ansys serves the CAE (Computer Aided Engineering)/multiphysics engineering simulation market. Read more…

Intel’s Server and PC Chip Development Will Blur After 2025

January 15, 2024

Intel's dealing with much more than chip rivals breathing down its neck; it is simultaneously integrating a bevy of new technologies such as chiplets, artificia Read more…

Baidu Exits Quantum, Closely Following Alibaba’s Earlier Move

January 5, 2024

Reuters reported this week that Baidu, China’s giant e-commerce and services provider, is exiting the quantum computing development arena. Reuters reported � Read more…

Leading Solution Providers

Contributors

Choosing the Right GPU for LLM Inference and Training

December 11, 2023

Accelerating the training and inference processes of deep learning models is crucial for unleashing their true potential and NVIDIA GPUs have emerged as a game- Read more…

Training of 1-Trillion Parameter Scientific AI Begins

November 13, 2023

A US national lab has started training a massive AI brain that could ultimately become the must-have computing resource for scientific researchers. Argonne N Read more…

Shutterstock 1179408610

Google Addresses the Mysteries of Its Hypercomputer 

December 28, 2023

When Google launched its Hypercomputer earlier this month (December 2023), the first reaction was, "Say what?" It turns out that the Hypercomputer is Google's t Read more…

Comparing NVIDIA A100 and NVIDIA L40S: Which GPU is Ideal for AI and Graphics-Intensive Workloads?

October 30, 2023

With long lead times for the NVIDIA H100 and A100 GPUs, many organizations are looking at the new NVIDIA L40S GPU, which it’s a new GPU optimized for AI and g Read more…

AMD MI3000A

How AMD May Get Across the CUDA Moat

October 5, 2023

When discussing GenAI, the term "GPU" almost always enters the conversation and the topic often moves toward performance and access. Interestingly, the word "GPU" is assumed to mean "Nvidia" products. (As an aside, the popular Nvidia hardware used in GenAI are not technically... Read more…

Shutterstock 1606064203

Meta’s Zuckerberg Puts Its AI Future in the Hands of 600,000 GPUs

January 25, 2024

In under two minutes, Meta's CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, laid out the company's AI plans, which included a plan to build an artificial intelligence system with the eq Read more…

Google Introduces ‘Hypercomputer’ to Its AI Infrastructure

December 11, 2023

Google ran out of monikers to describe its new AI system released on December 7. Supercomputer perhaps wasn't an apt description, so it settled on Hypercomputer Read more…

China Is All In on a RISC-V Future

January 8, 2024

The state of RISC-V in China was discussed in a recent report released by the Jamestown Foundation, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank. The report, entitled "E Read more…

  • arrow
  • Click Here for More Headlines
  • arrow
HPCwire