Análise da Eficiência Energética de Veículos Equipados com Motores Diesel

Abstract

In the last years, the effort spent by automotive companies to deliver a most profitable product to their customers and that preserves the environment has proved the importance of exploiting new methods for maximizing the vehicle fuel efficiency.Besides the implementation of new technologies such as hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs), fuel cell vehicles (FCVs) and electric vehicles (EVs), several driver assistance systems were developed by automotive companies in the last decades with the aim of improving the fuel efficiency of vehicles equipped with internal combustion engines.One of the main factors that affects the vehicle fuel efficiency is the way that it is driven, mainly for vehicles equipped with manual transmission, where besides the engine torque control the driver is also responsible for shifting gears. Hence, the development of new technologies that make the operation of this type of vehicle more efficient have proved to be extremely relevant for the automotive Brazilian industry, mainly for commercial vehicles, where alternative measures as drivers training have not achieved the expected results due to the high turnover of these professionals in the Brazilian market.The purpose of this study is to share a fuel efficiency analysis of commercial vehicles equipped with Diesel engines during positive acceleration phase and also for two hypothetical urban sections travelled with different driving strategies. This analysis aims to provide information that could be used as basis for the development of new active assistance systems to improve the vehicle fuel efficiency.The mentioned analysis were performed via simulation using MAT-LAB/Simulink through the non-linear math model that explains the vehicle longitudinal dynamics, as well as a math model designed by the author based on experimental data to explain mathematically the vehicle fuel efficiency.