A Study in Options to Improve Aerodynamic Profile of Heavy-Duty Vehicles in Europe

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Some sentences in the paper have an erroneous syntax. I suggest you read the paper once more before the next submission.

Some sentences seem to be copied from a report. This should be amended.

e.g. line 12 "drawn from the above comparative studies": there are no studies mentioned above.

Other issues to amend:

Line 26: "A pre-standard electric Hybrid-on-Demand Framework": please explain what this means, or even better shorten this paragraph and concentrate on air drag

Line 38+39: syntax error in the sentence

Line 58: the equation seems to be wrong. It should be in the brackets
(Eta_th x Eta_system). You cannot sum up efficiencies and the "Eta_th x Eta_system" cannot be 27% if you add something to 50% thermal engine efficinecy.

Line 95: typo "gab"

Line 180: figure 3-4 should be figure 7, I guess.

Line 202: "3 areas" instead of "5 areas", at least according to the text above.

Figure 10: the numbers are missing in the figure (1-7 for splitter plate up to roof tapering)

Chapters 4.1 to 4.8: sentences are repeated from former combinations, e.g. line 429 ff is copy paste from chapter 4.5. I suggest to shorten; e.g. "the the effects on air floor on the top are as described in 4.5,..."

Line 474: figure 17 instead of 13?

Line 501: you state "tapering is already mandatory". Do you mean in your project? On the road it is not mandatory, right? if mandatory on-road, please make reference to a regulation.

Author Response

Response to Reviewer 1 Comments

Point 1: Some sentences in the paper have an erroneous syntax. I suggest you read the paper once more before the next submission.


Response 1: The document has been re-read and syntax errors have been corrected.

Point 2: Some sentences seem to be copied from a report. This should be amended. e.g. line 12 "drawn from the above comparative studies": there are no studies mentioned above.

Response 2: Thanks for accurately pointing out. The errors have been fixed in the way sentences have been re-framed. Apologies for that.

Point 3: Line 26: "A pre-standard electric Hybrid-on-Demand Framework": please explain what this means, or even better shorten this paragraph and concentrate on air drag

Response 3: The introduction has been shortened, and the focus has been laid on aerodynamic drag.

Point 4: Line 38+39: syntax error in the sentence

Response 4: The errors have been corrected and the sentence has been re-worked.

Point 5: Line 58: the equation seems to be wrong. It should be in the brackets

(Eta_th x Eta_system). You cannot sum up efficiencies and the "Eta_th x Eta_system" cannot be 27% if you add something to 50% thermal engine efficinecy.

Response 5: Yes, you are right… There has been a typo. The equation has been inferred from the following article: https://doi.org/10.1109/MELE.2013.2293838 first paragraph and been applied to heavy duty vehicles. The thermal efficiency is 0.45 and the system efficiency is calculated as 1-0.38, resulting in an overall efficiency of 27.9%

Point 6: typo "gab"

Response 6: Corrected to gap

Point 7: Line 180: figure 3-4 should be figure 7, I guess.

Response 7: Figure numbering has been corrected.

Point 8: Line 202: "3 areas" instead of "5 areas", at least according to the text above.

Response 8: Rightly pointed. Has been corrected to 3 areas.

Point 9: Figure 10: the numbers are missing in the figure (1-7 for splitter plate up to roof tapering)

Response 9: A new figure with clearer explanation and numbering has been inserted.

Point 10: Chapters 4.1 to 4.8: sentences are repeated from former combinations, e.g. line 429 ff is copy paste from chapter 4.5. I suggest to shorten; e.g. "the the effects on air floor on the top are as described in 4.5,..."

Response 10: The section has been shortened and modified accordingly

Point 11: Line 474: figure 17 instead of 13?

Response 11: Figure number has been updated. The figures have also been cross referenced to eliminate the error

Point 12: Line 501: you state "tapering is already mandatory". Do you mean in your project? On the road it is not mandatory, right? if mandatory on-road, please make reference to a regulation.

Response 12: Thanks for pointing out. We wanted to mention here that along with the other measures that can reduce drag - roof tapering becomes a mandatory measure to realize substantial gains in drag reduction. The sentence has been modified accordingly to convey the message

Reviewer 2 Report

This is an interesting and useful work that talks about the influence of aerodynamic designs of heavy-duty vehicles to their aerodynamic drag and associated performance of efficiencies, but have the following minor concerns:

1) Definitions of the drag coefficient and angle parameters such as beta and psi are missing

2) For Figure 4, if the following table is treated as a part of the figure, then the caption should be placed beneath the table, otherwise, the table itself should have a separate caption. Similar scenario for Figure 10 on page 9. In addition, for this Figure 10, the number labels similar to those in Figure 4 should be placed beside subfigures

3) In the caption of Figure 8 on page 8, it should be “3 areas”, not “5 areas” according to the text above the figure

4) It’s better to be consistent for the format of all tables, such as fill color and text font

5) There have two Figure 10 on both page 9 and page 11

6) The table in Section 4.10 should have a caption

7) When citing figures in the text, “Figure” and “figure” are mixed-use

8) Recommend to add DOI in the reference list

Author Response

Response to Reviewer 2 Comments

This is an interesting and useful work that talks about the influence of aerodynamic designs of heavy-duty vehicles to their aerodynamic drag and associated performance of efficiencies, but have the following minor concerns:

Point 1: Definitions of the drag coefficient and angle parameters such as beta and psi are missing.


Response 1: We included the definition of drag coefficient and angle parameters as recommended.

Point 2: For Figure 4, if the following table is treated as a part of the figure, then the caption should be placed beneath the table, otherwise, the table itself should have a separate caption. Similar scenario for Figure 10 on page 9. In addition, for this Figure 10, the number labels similar to those in Figure 4 should be placed beside subfigures.

Response 2: All the figures and tables have been redone as recommended. Tables have been eliminated and the definition is now a part of the image.

Point 3: In the caption of Figure 8 on page 8, it should be “3 areas”, not “5 areas” according to the text above the figure

Response 3: Thanks for pointing out. This has been changed accordingly.

Point 4: It’s better to be consistent for the format of all tables, such as fill color and text font

Response 4: All the tables formatting has been updated to match the needs specified.

Point 5: There have two Figure 10 on both page 9 and page 11.

Response 5: This has been resolved by using the built-in caption/cross-reference tool in word. Thanks for pointing out.

Point 6: The table in Section 4.10 should have a caption.

Response 6: This has been resolved by using the built-in caption/cross-reference tool in word. Thanks for pointing out.

Point 7: When citing figures in the text, “Figure” and “figure” are mixed-use.

Response 7: We have updated the citation by using the in-built citation tool to improve consistency in the font size and numbering. They also have been cross-referenced in the paper.

Point 8: Recommend to add DOI in the reference list.

Response 8: We have added DOI and links to all the references.