Impact of Pavement Roughness on Fuel Consumption for a Range of Vehicle Types
Publication: Journal of Transportation Engineering, Part B: Pavements
Volume 147, Issue 3
Abstract
Fuel consumption increases with pavement roughness, thereby impacting vehicle operating costs. This paper explores the use of physics-based models to simulate a fleet consisting of 29 different vehicles representing a range of vehicle categories, technologies, and fuel types. Each vehicle model was simulated over a gamut of pavement roughness profiles while traveling at steady-state speeds from 16 to to estimate the impact of roughness on the vehicle fuel consumption. Published fuel consumption measurements on a large sport utility vehicle (SUV) and a dump truck gathered before and after pavement resurfacing (road condition going from fair to good) were used for validation of the prediction of change in fuel consumption due to pavement roughness. The simulation results compared closely (within 2%) with the measured data sets for both vehicles.
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Data Availability Statement
Some or all data, models, or code generated or used during the study are proprietary or confidential in nature and may only be provided with restrictions.
Data related to vehicle parameters and information obtained from manufacturers and suppliers in the development of vehicle models and resultant models are proprietary.
Data that can be shared are included in the final report submitted to the funder and may be requested by directly contacting the sponsoring agency indicated in the acknowledgement.
Acknowledgments
This work is funded by U.S. Department of Transportation Federal Highway Administration, Office of Transportation Policy Studies under Contract No. DTFH61-14-C-00044. The authors thank Reid Pulley for his assistance in compiling and reducing data.
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© 2021 American Society of Civil Engineers.
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Received: Jul 1, 2020
Accepted: Dec 23, 2020
Published online: Apr 30, 2021
Published in print: Sep 1, 2021
Discussion open until: Sep 30, 2021
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