Impact of Pavement Roughness on Fuel Consumption for a Range of Vehicle Types

Abstract

Fuel consumption increases with pavement roughness, thereby impacting vehicle operating costs. This paper explores the use of physics-based models to simulate a fleet consisting of 29 different vehicles representing a range of vehicle categories, technologies, and fuel types. Each vehicle model was simulated over a gamut of pavement roughness profiles while traveling at steady-state speeds from 16 to $145\mathrm{km}/\mathrm{h}$ to estimate the impact of roughness on the vehicle fuel consumption. Published fuel consumption measurements on a large sport utility vehicle (SUV) and a dump truck gathered before and after pavement resurfacing (road condition going from fair to good) were used for validation of the prediction of change in fuel consumption due to pavement roughness. The simulation results compared closely (within 2%) with the measured data sets for both vehicles.