Question:
help! how to calculate fuel consumption?
serene h
2009-03-14 04:08:07 UTC
how do you calculate fuel consumption from brake horsepower? im pretty sure there's a formula out there but i cant seem to find it!
i'm just doing theoretical calculations here so all i have are the vehicle's specs
Six answers:
zoot661
2009-03-14 15:55:58 UTC
well - it does depend on you definition of fuel consumption



You determine the brake specfic fuel consumption ( measured in grams / kilowatt hour or other equilvalent units ) by measuring the fuel consumption in grams per hour and then dividing it by the power being generated



The BSFC varies over the engines speed / torque envelope and therefore an engine does not have a single figure for BSFC.



BSFC in determined by running the engine on a dynamometer



The fuel consumption in mpg or l/km is not directly related to the engine power



One of the other answerers described something similar to the 'coastdown' procedure that is used to determine the 'road load model' for vehicles.



The coastdown procedure involves accelerating the vehicle to a pre=defined speed and then selecting neutral and allow the vehicle to coast to a halt, measuring its speed at regular intervals



The speed points can then be curve fitted to derive the road load coefficients for the equation



Road Force = f0 + f1v + f2v^2 + mdv/dt +mg sin(gradient)



These coefficients are then used to determine what force a chassis dynamometer should apply to simulate road conditions
Mr Blue
2009-03-14 04:12:08 UTC
If you have the vehicle specs, which are normally found in the vehicles manual, try turning over a few pages and looking in the fuel consumption section.
Karen
2016-03-16 01:50:57 UTC
Look at the example below. First, convert the flight time from hours and minutes to decimal hours: 1 hr 40 min = 1 hr + 40 min/60 min = 1.67 hrs 8.5 gph (fuel consumption rate) x 1.67 (flight time in decimal hours) = 14.2 gallons The pilot of this aircraft will need to make sure that at least 14.2 gallons of fuel are pumped into the fuel tanks for this flight.
Steve C
2009-03-14 15:13:33 UTC
It sounds to me like you're wanting brake specific fuel consumption?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brake_specific_fuel_consumption



Don't know EXACTLY how you'd do it, but heres some ideas that might be of help...



You'll almost certainly need the torque curve (torque verses rpm) for the engine (you can produce it from power verses rpm), as efficiency varies from a maximum at peak torque....



calculating BMEPs might be of some help

http://www.xplorer.co.za/articles/bmep.htm



---

If your wanting the fuel consumption of an engine used for transportation, you need to specify the torque/rpm that will be asked of the engine.



You could perhaps provide an estimation of fuel consumption by working "backwards" from a "neat trick" I came across which uses a car's mass as it's own dynometer (power meter)



weigh the car, and then find several different (steady/long) gradients. ...If you know the mass of car, and measure what steady speed it attains while out of gear, going down a number of hills with KNOWN gradients,you can find the power that's required for the car to move on the flat at any speed (going down a hill "adds power" to the car, going up a hill takes it away. You can power a car by a downhill slope...). NB Acceleration functions much like going up a hill (local gravity "rotates", "g" will change too, because of the addition of vectors



---

I forgotten the other method was called a rolldown test.

My idea is a little bit different, (and relates power requirement to speed more directly), but does use some of the same ideas...



I figure that as power can be calculated by power=mass*g*height_raised /time if you know how fast a car loses height while in neutral (ie drops altitude:- can be figured by knowledge of trig, speed and gradient) , once acceleration is 0 (ie speed has peaked ) you can calculate quite simply how how much power that vehicle needs to overcome it's drag forces, and maintain it's speed. NB the power "robbed" by climbing the same hill at that speed would be the negation of the power provided by "rolling" down the hill. Relating power requirements to speed allows drag coefficients to be figured out.



Consider the direction gravity acts on a vehicle. It is the same as the direction of a pendulum hung from the vehicle's roof. Fix the protractor to the roof of the car, so when the car is at rest, on the level it reads 90 deg (and goes towards 180 deg when the car is climbing a hill,towards 0 when going down a hill)



Go down a hill without accelerating, and the line of action of gravity is in the direction of travel (ie towards 0 deg). Force pulling the car along the road (and down the hill) due to gravity is f=m*g*cos angle. (If using a metric system power then found by p=f*v)



I haven't quite worked out the details of it out but here's the guist of my idea as to how to factor in power requirements for acceleration/consumed by braking.



Now consider the rate at which energy needs to be removed from a vehicle to brake it(ie the power the brakes must transfer into heat). Keep the same reference frame/protractor/pendulum to measure angle, and you find when braking the pendulum once again moves forward. A given angle of pendulum means v*m*g*cos angle units of power are transferred. pendulum moves towards 180 under acceleration/hill climbing



I think you then need to make the sum of the power transfers equal to 0(the vehicle doesn't really gain/lose power) to figure out the direction of the power transfers, but I'm struggling with that step, as something non-intuitive seems to be going on.
billrussell42
2009-03-14 04:39:00 UTC
you can't. There are too many factors besides HP that are involved.



The wind resistance at various speeds. The transmission ratios and friction and shift points. The tire resistance at various speeds. Speed limits. Driving habits, etc.



It must be measured, not calculated.



.
adi
2009-03-14 08:28:17 UTC
google it.


This content was originally posted on Y! Answers, a Q&A website that shut down in 2021.
Loading...