Calibrating Fuel Consumption and Emission Models for Modern Vehicles

Aerial photograph of road

Abstract

Estimation of fuel consumption and pollutant emissions for evaluating traffic conditions is useful for environmental assessment in traffic design, operations and planning. This also forms the basis of operating cost modelling. Fuel consumption and emission (CO2, CO, HC, NOx) models of four levels of aggregation were developed by the first author and his colleagues at the Australian Road Research Board in the 1980s. The four-mode elemental (modal) and the more detailed instantaneous forms of the model are implemented in the SIDRA INTERSECTION and SIDRA TRIP software packages. Vehicle parameters used by these models are being calibrated using data for a modern vehicle fleet for use in future versions of these software packages. For this purpose, an empirical database (NISE 2) incorporating a large range of fuel consumption and emission data for about 400 vehicles representing a cross section of typical vehicles on Australian metropolitan roads is being used. This paper describes the models and the calibration method used, and presents results for a medium-size passenger car.

Reference

AKÇELIK, R., SMIT, R. and BESLEY, M. (2012). Calibrating Fuel Consumption and Emission Models for Modern Vehicles. Paper presented at the IPENZ Transportation Group Conference, Rotorua, New Zealand, Mar 2012.

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