AN ANALYSIS OF FUEL CONSUMPTION MODELS

This paper describes the requirements of fuel consumption models to be used by traffic and transportation engineers. These models are necessary for two broad areas; firstly for inclusion in traffic or transportation models and, secondly, for estimating fuel usage from traffic data collected as part of on-street surveys. The model selected by the traffic or transport engineer is simply a trade-off between the accuracy required for his particular purpose versus the cost he is prepared to pay for that accuracy. With particular regard to Australia, previous work in the area of fuel consumption/traffic and transportation models is outlined. At this stage, it is considered that there is not a single model which meets all the requirements of traffic and transport engineers. Various forms of fuel consumption models, which best meet the requirements of traffic and transport engineers, are described and procedures for estimating these models are proposed. The basis for this estimation is a procedure in which a relationship between instantaneous fuel consumption and power is developed. Power is in turn related to instantaneous velocity and acceleration; also included is road gradient and average fleet vehicle mass and engine capacity (a). The paper was presented as Paper 6-Session 2-Fuel Consumption Modelling (1) (SAE 82136). The number of the covering abstract of the conference is TRIS no. 367871. (TRRL)