Calibration of Motor Vehicle Emission Simulator (MOVES) to Incorporate Effect of Truck Platooning

Truck platooning is one of the Connected and Automated Vehicle technologies that primarily aims to reduce fuel consumption. Recent experimental studies measured fuel saving for limited combinations of platoon position, gap and speed because conducting these experiments, even in a small scale, is costly. The results of the experiments provide a valuable understanding of energy consumption impacts of truck platooning; however they are not sufficient for comprehensive impact predictions because in the real world, speed profiles will be experienced that have not been tested in the experiments. Understanding the fuel savings for different speeds and accelerations is needed to simulate traffic and design management strategies enhancing the benefits of platooning. To address this need, the authors have modified the Motor Vehicle Emission Simulator (MOVES) to estimate fuel saving for different speed, acceleration, gap and platoon positions for Class-8 tractor-trailer combination trucks. The modification is based on the fuel savings measured by McAuliffe et al. (2018) for a 3-truck platoon traveling at a speed of 65 mph and 9 different gaps between 0.14 [s] and 3 [s]. Regression models are developed to estimate the aerodynamic drag coefficients for different gaps and platoon positions based on the fuel saving measurements. These drag coefficients are used to compute fuel saving factors for conditions that have not been covered in the experiment. The computed saving factors are used as inputs to develop models which determine fuel saving factors based on gap, platoon position, acceleration and speed. Further details about data, modeling, and results are discussed in the paper. The outcome of this study can be integrated with the speed profiles from traffic microsimulation programs to estimate the energy impacts of truck platooning and evaluate related traffic management strategies.

• Supplemental Notes:
  • This paper was sponsored by TRB committee ADC20 Standing Committee on Transportation and Air Quality.
• Corporate Authors:

  Transportation Research Board

  ,    
• Authors:
  • Ramezani, Hani
  • Lu, Xiao-Yun
  • Shladover, Steven E
• Conference:
  • Transportation Research Board 98th Annual Meeting
  • Location: Washington DC, United States
  • Date: 2019-1-13 to 2019-1-17
• Date: 2019

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Features: Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 19p

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Connected vehicles; Fuel conservation; Fuel consumption; Mathematical models; Tractor trailer combinations; Traffic platooning; Trucks; Vehicle to vehicle communications
• Subject Areas: Energy; Freight Transportation; Highways; Vehicles and Equipment;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01698072
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: 19-05831
• Files: TRIS, TRB, ATRI
• Created Date: Mar 1 2019 3:51PM