Influence of road conditions on vehicles’ fuel consumption

The article deals with the influence of road conditions on fuel consumption by vehicles when transporting goods and passengers, which depends on the speed of movement. The optimum fuel consumption corresponds to the optimum speed of movement which is distinctive for each type of car. Increase or decrease of the optimum speed leads to increased fuel consumption. Elevations reduce the speed and increase fuel consumption by up to 30%. Road conditions (width of roadway, condition of surface, presence of horizontal curves, longitudinal slopes, pedestrian crossings, settlements) cause a change in the speed of movement and consumption of fuel and lubricants. It is possible to take into account the road conditions by plotting the speed of movement along the route, the change in the speed occuring during the travel time and socio-economic indicators of the route. Based on this chart, fuel costs and route times are calculated. Since the cost of fuel is 50-52% of the cost of transportation of goods and passengers, the cost will be roughly 2 times higher. The cost of transportation of goods by trucks is characterized by the cost of transportation, and the transportation of passengers by the cost and time spent by passengers when traveling the route.

DESIGN OF A HYBRID ELECTRIC MOTORCYCLE FOR OPTIMUM FUEL CONSUMPTION AND PERFORMANCE

In this paper, design and conversion of a conventional motorcycle to a Hybrid Electric Motorcycle is performed. Firstly, for a reference motorcycle with 125 cc internal combustion engine, the sizing of the main components based on performance is described. Furthermore, ADVISOR is used to simulate the proposed motorcycle and calculate the fuel consumption in different cycles. The configuration of hybrid design is a separated parallel or through the road type, in which a brushless DC motor is assumed to be fitted in the front wheel. An optimization process is carried out to size the components for both the performance and fuel economy of the motorcycle. The results show that a 1.5 kW electric motor in front can improve the performance and grading of the motorcycle as well as to decrease the fuel consumption of the motorcycle on several driving patterns.