Vehicle Speed Profiles to Minimize Work and Fuel Consumption
Publication: Journal of Transportation Engineering
Volume 131, Issue 3
Abstract
This paper addresses the question of what speed profile will minimize fuel consumption of a land transport vehicle (road or rail) in traversing a path or route. Numerous previous studies, using a control theory approach applied to specific profiles, have suggested that fuel consumption is approximately minimized by operation at constant speed. This result is derived much more directly here, along with boundaries on the conditions under which this result holds. The derivation relies on: (1) the approximate proportionality between fuel consumption and propulsive work; (2) the inherent resistance of a vehicle having the usual quadratic form (of road and rail vehicles); (3) the energy conversion characteristics of on-board gasoline or diesel (or diesel–electric) propulsion systems; and (4) relatively long distances between stops. Tests, using a train performance simulator, confirm the theoretical results. The results are discussed from the standpoint of basic principles in transportation engineering, and as guidance for designing systems that conserve fuel.
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Acknowledgments
This study has been partly supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation (Grant No. CMS-0085658), a grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation through the Mid-Atlantic Universities Transportation Center, and the UPS Foundation Professorship in Transportation at the University of Pennsylvania. The assistance of Mr. Robert Leilich, CEO of the firm providing the TPC software and railroad data when this work was undertaken, is gratefully acknowledged. Such support implies no endorsement of the findings. Comments and suggestions from Dr. Peter M. Hahn of the University of Pennsylvania and an anonymous reviewer were very helpful in improving the derivation of optimal speed.
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Transportation Engineering
Volume 131 • Issue 3 • March 2005
Pages: 173 - 182
Copyright
© 2005 ASCE.
History
Received: Jul 25, 2003
Accepted: Apr 20, 2004
Published online: Mar 1, 2005
Published in print: Mar 2005
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