Performance of Cars and Light
Vans or Trucks
The performance of cars and light vans or trucks is to be
discussed next. Racing cars and Heavy trucks need separate
discussion.
Performance of a vehicle depends on several factors.
Aerodynamic Drag, Weight, Tire Rolling Resistance,
Safety and comfort Requirements, Emission Standards,
etc.
Over the past 20 years:
Improve the fuel economy of automobiles
(Reduction of Aerodynamics Drag)
Improvement of Engine Efficiency (Reduce exhaust
emissions)
Reduce the mass of the body (Light construction)
Improve the safety and comfort
RESISTANCES TO VEHICLE MOTION
The effect of various properties of a car on its
fuel economy can be judged from the
equation of motion of the vehicle together
with the driving schedule of the vehicle.
Equation of Motion
According to Newton’s 2nd law of motion the Tractive
Force, FT required at the interface between the tires
and the driven wheel’s and road is
Where
FT is the Tractive Force,
D is the Aerodynamic Drag,
R is the Tire Rolling Resistance,
m is the Mass of the Vehicle,
V is the speed of the vehicle,
g the acceleration due to gravity, and
α is the inclination angle of the road.
m dV/dt is called Acceleration Resistance.
mg sinα is called Climbing Resistance.
The Aerodynamic drag (Still air (no wind))
where Af is the frontal area of the Vehicle and V is the
Road speed or speed of the vehicle moving in still air.
Drag Coefficient (Coefficient of Aerodynamics
Resistance)
The Total Aerodynamic drag (Windy air)
In practice, the wind blows at speed Vw which is
randomly blowing at an angle of δ to the
direction of motion of the vehicle.
• The resulting wind speed, V∞ approaches the vehicle
at a ‘yawing angle’β.
• The net drag force to be overcome by the vehicle in
this case of side wind blowing at an angle δ is termed
T (called Tangential Force in Europe) .
• T is expressed (similar to D) in terms of the net free
stream speed, V∞ and a coefficient of Tangential
Force, CT.
Where T is the Total Drag
Usually the angle β is small (β<8º) and it can be neglected.
In this case the total drag coefficient in the cross-wind
condition is assumed to be the same as the drag coefficient
for the still air condition
CT ≈ CD
Tire Rolling Resistance: R
The rolling resistance (R) is depending on vehicle mass
(m) and a coefficient of rolling resistance ( )
Where G=mg
Coefficient of rolling resistance fR depends on:
tire construction, tire size, tire pressure, axle geometry,
road speed, road surface type and whether the wheels
are driven or towed.
This coefficient fR is determined experimentally.
Effect of Road surface Type on fR
The values given in the table do not take into the account
their variations with speed.
Equation of Motion: Vehicle Moving at
Constant speed on a Level Road Surface
General Equation of the Required Tractive
Force acting on the vehicle is given
dV
FT D R m mg sin
dt
For Constant Speed:
For Level Road Surface:
Then General Eq. can be written as
Conclusion: For a vehicle moving at constant speed on a
level road surface, the required tractive force ( ) is the
sum of the Aerodynamic Drag (D) + Rolling Resistance (R).
= Road Load
The sum D + R is called ROAD LOAD.
Figure 3.6. shows that
At higher speeds most of the road load or resistance to
motion consists of D, the aerodynamic drag.
At 80 km/h, 50% of the resistance to motion is due to
aerodynamic drag (D).
At lower speed most of the road load consists of R, Rolling
Resistance.
Other Vehicle performance Factors
Other factors in vehicle performance that need
to be considered are the Effective Mass of the
Vehicle , the Maximum Speed,
Acceleration Time and Elasticity of a
Vehicle.
Elasticity of a vehicle:
Defination: The time required to accelerate
from 80 km/h to 120 km/h in top gear.
Climbing Resistance : It is not taken into account in
fuel consumption assessment due to difficulty in defining the
altitude profile.
Vehicle Effective Mass:
Mass should be replaced by effective mass (meff)
meff m(1 i )
Where εi is the equivalent translation mass of the rotating components
(wheels, engine, gears, shafts, etc.). Manual transmission are
1st gear : 1 0.25
2nd gear : 2 0.15
3rd gear : 3 0.10
4th gear : 4 0.075
This table shows the gear ratios for the Honda S2000
and the resulting difference of angular velocity of the
various components relative the wheel/tire speed
depending on the gear.
Maximum Speed
Today Max speed has become less important
relatively to fuel economy but still max speed is
important for sporty versions of cars.
Relation:
Tractive power: PT FT .V
At Max Speed point: PT ,Vmax
Vmax
FT ,Vmax
- The Efficiency of the Drive Train, ηD between
transmission and the tire patch
Available Power (Pa): This is the actual power
delivered to the driving.
Brake Power (Pb): This is the measure of an
engines without the loss in power caused by the
gearbox, generator, differential, water pump and
other auxiliaries.
Where is the Engine Brake Power
D ( Pb,T )
Vmax
FT ,Vmax
Quick approximation
Where is max. installed engine power in kW, in
km/h, and k is constant depends on the vehicle mass
(Typically 14 < k < 18)
Acceleration time and Elasticity of the vehicle
Acceleration time : It is the time needed to accelerate the gear
from 0 to 100 km/h (Europe) or 0-60 mph (USA)
Elasticity of a vehicle: The time required to accelerate from 80
to 120 km/h (50 to 75 mph, USA ) in top gear.
Fuel Economy (Fuel Consumption)
Another important parameter is fuel economy or fuel
consumption.
This is measured by the liters per 100 km (Europe) or
miles per gallon (US), Km/liter (Asia)
Fuel Consumption (Economy)
Definition: The volume of fuel used to travel a given
distance.
Unit: L/100 km
Fuel Economy (FE): miles/gallon (mpg)
Strategies for Low Fuel Consumption
1.Reduce Aerodynamics drag.
2. Reduce engine power so that the increase in
speed due to 1 is offset by reduced power. This
also requires No.3.
3. Reduce vehicle mass.
