This is where: Purdue and Wabash are driving the future of clean energy
James Gibert and his team of Purdue faculty and students collaborate with Wabash engineers on the energy-harvesting trailer in Herrick Labs. (Purdue University photo/Rebecca Robiños)
This story highlights one of the many ways Purdue teams up with corporate partners to create solutions for complex global challenges. Learn how your organization can collaborate with us.
Innovative collaboration sparks game changer for sustainability — an energy recapturing trailer
Taking the next giant leap in eco-innovation
The transportation sector is one of the leading contributors to greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S. according to the EPA. Brent Yeagy (BS environmental engineering science ’94, MS safety engineering ’98), president and CEO of Wabash, wants to change that. So, he’s partnering with Purdue.
Wabash — one of the largest trailer manufacturers in the nation — will spend the next three years collaborating with Purdue on an R&D project resulting in a device that enables trailers to recapture their own electricity from vibrations, heat and airflow.
Such an energy-harvesting machine could transform the industry. And Yeagy credits Purdue with accelerating and driving this innovation.
“Purdue brings world-class expertise in engineering and research that complements Wabash’s deep industry knowledge,” he says. “Through this partnership, we can explore groundbreaking ideas and push the boundaries of what’s possible. Purdue’s state-of-the-art facilities and talent pool accelerate our ability to innovate, making what might seem impossible, achievable.”
As the transportation industry moves toward decarbonization and electrification, projects like the energy recapturing trailer are critical to achieving clean energy goals.
“This collaboration allows us to approach the project with a level of technical depth and academic rigor that wouldn’t be possible on our own,” Yeagy says.
Purdue brings world-class expertise in engineering and research that complements Wabash’s deep industry knowledge. Through this partnership, we can explore groundbreaking ideas and push the boundaries of what’s possible.
Brent Yeagy, BS environmental engineering science ’94, MS safety engineering ’98
President and CEO, Wabash
Blue-sky thinking leads to practical solutions
A key deliverable in this project is data. Through retrofitting the trailer with displacement sensors, accelerometers, anemometers, pressure gauges and many other measurement tools, the research team will measure how much energy is wasted and how much of it can be recaptured.
Principal investigator James Gibert, an associate professor of mechanical engineering at Purdue, says that when the project is complete, Purdue will have fully studied and characterized the Wabash trailer.
“We will know where the sources of energy are in the trailer,” Gibert says. “And we will be able to share that knowledge with Wabash. This information will pave the way for commercially developing devices that can offset some of the load that the trailer sees.”
Gibert leads a team of three colleagues and six graduate students through this multiphase work. Senior Wabash engineers are involved too, meeting biweekly with the Purdue team and accompanying them on experimental runs.
Work on the data acquisition system is being driven by Purdue students like Karthik Boddapati, a fifth-year PhD student in mechanical engineering.
“In a typical U.S. Class 8 truck,” says Boddapati, “aerodynamic power losses account for nearly 25% of the total power consumption. I focus on analyzing airflow around the truck body and developing aeroelastic energy harvesting devices to capture energy from these aerodynamic losses.”
Measuring how vibrations can be harvested is a crucial aspect of the research project, with mechanical engineering doctoral students Yeongeun Ki analyzing the truck bed and truck wall and Karsten Hilgarth exploring the side panels.
Eric Williamson, a second-year doctoral student in mechanical engineering, who also has a BS and MS in aeronautical and astronautical engineering from Purdue, primarily focuses on the suspension and the analysis of experimental data.
This confluence of creativity makes Purdue an especially attractive research partner for companies like Wabash. “We have a talent pool of ideas and a fresh set of eyes,” Gibert says.
He also points out that an advantage to working with Purdue is that the university operates with a different set of constraints than industry partners.
“Our timetable and the commitment we can put in our projects are different than those of Wabash,” he says. “They’re busy running a business, delivering products. We can provide them with a more focused brand of research because that’s what we’re tasked to do all day. We’re not worried about the other aspects of running a business.”
Long-standing partnership leads to new approaches
Wabash’s connection with Purdue dates to the company’s founding in 1985 by Purdue alumni, and those ties remain strong.
“Several of us on the executive team are proud Boilermakers,” Yeagy says. “Over the years, we’ve collaborated on initiatives ranging from manufacturing Boilermaker Specials to student research projects and employment opportunities.”
In 2021, Wabash formalized a five-year R&D agreement through Purdue’s Office of Industry Partnerships. This expanded collaboration strengthened the company’s relationship with the Daniels School of Business and the College of Engineering. Yeagy says this creates “incredible synergy between Purdue’s cutting-edge research and Wabash’s industry expertise to tackle ambitious challenges together.”
Wabash is constantly thinking about how energy is used and generated in logistics in the hopes of paving the way for more sustainable solutions. “By investing in innovation,” he says, “we’re not just meeting today’s demands — we’re shaping the future of our industry and ensuring that Wabash remains at the forefront of transformative change.”
Applications for the technology could include powering the refrigerated part of the trailer or the auxiliary systems. “It all goes back to helping the trailer be more energy efficient,” Gibert says. “And there are many different avenues to approach this from.”
For Gibert, one of the most appealing aspects of a partnership like the one between Purdue and Wabash is it enables people who are not part of the university system to see the expansiveness of Purdue’s influence and how it directly affects them.
“There is a growing sentiment that academic work is ivory tower and not useful,” he says. “But we’re able to tangibly demonstrate how the research we can do is making an impact.”
