The impact of road geometry and surface roughness on fuel consumption of logging trucks

ABSTRACT

Fuel accounts for more than 35% of transport costs in Swedish forestry, and reduced fuel consumption would provide immediate economic and environmental benefits. The objective of this study was to quantify the effect of road gradient, curvature and surface roughness on fuel consumption of a conventional 60-ton logging truck. The study used a 320-km test track on both public and forest roads. The track was driven with various load weights in both dry summer and wet autumn conditions. Fuel consumption data were retrieved from the truck's CAN-bus system, and road data were measured with a profilograph. Average fuel consumption was 71.4 litres/100 km. A regression analysis showed that the most important factor was the interaction between vehicle weight and gradient, explaining the 86% increase between empty and fully loaded truck. In addition, the regression analysis quantified the individual effects of undulation, curvature and surface roughness, explaining the 107% increase in fuel consumption between the highest and lowest road class. Results from the proposed regression model (R² of 84% for a road section length of 1000 m) were consistent with predictions given by the European ARTEMIS model, and the proposed model can be used to improve cost estimation and route selection.

KEYWORDS:

• Fuel consumption
• low-volume gravel roads
• gradient
• curvature
• road surface roughness
• logging truck
• profilograph

ORCID

Gunnar Svenson http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8546-1185

Acknowledgements

Many people has been involved in this work, but the authors would like to especially thank the driver, Fredrik Petterson at Lönn and Petterson haulage company, as well as Sima Mohtashami, Lars Eliasson and Inger Petré at Skogforsk for their contributions to analysis and documentation of this study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This study was funded by Skogforsk (Forestry Research Institute of Sweden), the Swedish Transport Administration, and FIRST (Forest Industrial Research School on Technology).