Calibration of HDM-4 Fuel Consumption Model to Field Measurement on I-95 in Florida

A field experiment is carried out by operating vehicles (passenger car and commercial truck) on two roadway sections (flexible pavement and rigid pavement) along Interstate Highway 95 in Florida. Statistical comparison is first performed and revealed that the average fuel consumption differences between vehicles operating on flexible pavement and rigid pavement at given test condition are 4.04% for truck and 2.25% for passenger car, in favor of rigid pavement. The differences are proven statistically significant regardless of the vehicle type at 95% confidence level for southbound average fuel consumption and overall average fuel consumption, but not for northbound average fuel consumption. The truck test data are then used to calibrate the two coefficients given in HDM-4 fuel consumption model. Calibration result shows that the model is well response to the field data and can be adequately applied to predict the truck fuel consumption given pavement and environment information. In turn, the result further confirms the necessity of adjusting/calibrating models before their application to local condition. Finally, the effect of wind speed on vehicle fuel consumption is investigated and equation is recommended for calculating the truck aerodynamic resistance for Florida’s condition.