Prediction of Dynamometer Power Absorption to Simulate Light Duty Truck Road Load

When vehicle exhaust emission tests or vehicle fuel consumption measurements are performed on a chassis dynamometer, the dynamometer is usually adjusted to simulate the road experience of the vehicle. In this study, road load versus speed data were obtained from 15 light duty trucks. The road load of each truck was determined for different pay loads, resulting in a total of approximately 50 road load measurements.

Dynamometer power absorption settings to simulate the measured road loads are computed. These dynamometer settings are regressed against vehicle frontal area and vehicle inertia weight. It is concluded that the dynamometer load settings are most accurately predicted on the basis of the vehicle frontal area.