Impact of Acceleration Aggressiveness on Fuel Consumption Using Comprehensive Power Based Fuel Consumption Model

Abstract

Changes in vehicle fuel-consumption and emission rates are associated with changes in vehicle cruise speeds and acceleration. Higher levels of speed is believed to be one of the most prevalent factors contributing to fuel consumption. As a result, the relationship between fuel consumption and driving speed behaviour has been the subject of investigation by several research. The main objective of this paper is to investigate the fuel consumption during different acceleration degrees namely: aggressive, normal and mild. The test vehicle was examined on a 2 km section of Cairo - El Ain El Sokhna Road. The three levels of acceleration were determined based on pre-developed drive scenarios. In addition, fuel consumption was estimated based on a Virginia Tech Power Based Fuel Consumption Model (VT-CPFM). This model is a simple and rapid method for investigating fuel consumption rates. The study demonstrated that the fuel consumed to accelerate an initially stationary vehicle was not related to the target speed as to driving behaviour. It was also observed that the fuel consumed per maneuvers decreased as the degree of aggressiveness increased due to the fact that the vehicle time spent during acceleration was less.

Keywords: Fuel consumption, VT-CPFM, Acceleration levels.