Influence of Suspension Parameters, Tire-Pressure and Tire-Type on Vehicle Fuel Consumption

Worldwide, there is a popular charge for equipment and processes that have an ecological responsibility, aiming the preservation of the environment. That charge comes specially in the automotive industry, due to the emission of harmful gases to the health, provoked by the burn of fossil fuel, being directly correlated with the fuel consumption of the vehicle. Although the automotive researches have worked to increase the vehicle autonomy, the driver behavior has influence on the vehicle fuel consumption, due their involvement with vehicle components maintenance. Moreover, nowadays there is a large effort by the automobile industry and their suppliers to use software to simulate real test, aiming to reduce the outdoor test. This work aims to analyses the influence of parameters that can be controlled by the driver on the fuel consumption. The simulations were developed by applying the methodology of design of experiment (DOE) and using standardized cycles of fuel consumption for urban and road profiles. The modeling represents a commercial C-class hatchback car developed with the vehicle dynamic software CARSIM. Through this model it was possible to simulate different parameters that can be controlled by the driver. It was chosen the tire pressure and type, and the tire toe angle to analyze how relevant these parameters are related to the vehicle fuel consumption. The results showed that the tire pressure was the parameter that presented the greatest influence on vehicle fuel consumption, showing approximately a reduction of 12% on fuel consumption on the road cycle and a reduction of 13% on fuel consumption on the urban cycle. The Influence of the tire type on the fuel consumption presented a variation of 7% reduction in consumption in the road cycle, and 8% reduction in consumption for the urban cycle. These results showed that technological advances that have been developed by the automotive companies to reduce the vehicle fuel consumption can be suppressed by the driver's inattention regarding to the basic maintenance of the vehicle.