Virginia Tech Comprehensive Power-Based Fuel Consumption Model: Model development and testing

Existing automobile fuel consumption and emission models suffer from two major drawbacks; they produce a bang–bang control through the use of a linear power model and the calibration of model parameters is not possible using publicly available data thus necessitating in-laboratory or field data collection. This paper develops two fuel consumption models that overcome these two limitations. Specifically, the models do not produce a bang–bang control and are calibrated using US Environmental Protection Agency city and highway fuel economy ratings in addition to publicly available vehicle and roadway pavement parameters. The models are demonstrated to estimate vehicle fuel consumption rates consistent with in-field measurements. In addition the models estimate CO2 emissions that are highly correlated with field measurements.

► The research develops two simple vehicle fuel consumption models.
► The models are calibrated using the city and highway fuel economy ratings.
► The models estimate fuel consumption rates consistent with in-field measurements.
► The proposed model estimates CO2 emissions within a 2% error range.
► The proposed model can be easily integrated within a traffic simulation framework.