Efficient Position Change Algorithms for Prolonging Driving Range of a Truck Platoon

Cooperative automated driving technology has emerged as a potential way to increase the efficiency of transportation systems and enhance traffic safety by allowing vehicles to exchange relevant information via wireless communication. Truck platooning utilizes this technology and achieves synchronized braking and acceleration, controlling two or more trucks simultaneously. This synchronized control makes driving with a very short inter-vehicle distance among trucks possible and reduces aerodynamic drag. This provides significant fuel consumption reduction, both in leading and trailing trucks, and achieves fuel-saving improvement. However, the static positioning sacrifices trucks in the front since they consume more fuel energy because of more air resistance than the rears. To solve this in-equivalent fuel consumption reduction benefit, this paper presents several heuristic algorithms to balance fuel consumption reduction and prolong the driving ranges by exploiting position changes among trucks in a platoon. Furthermore, the proposed algorithms try to reduce the number of position changes as much as possible to prevent any fuel waste caused by the unnecessary position change operations. In this manner, each truck in the platoon is likely to share a similar fuel consumption reduction with fewer position change counts, thus addressing the challenge of in-equivalent fuel savings distribution and obtaining optimal fuel efficiency. Our extensive simulation results show that the proposed algorithms can prolong the total distance by approximately 3% increased in two-truck platooning and even higher in six-trucks platooning of approximately 8%. Moreover, our proposed algorithms can decrease the position change count and ensure that trucks only switch to position arrangement once with no duplicate. Therefore, truck platooning obtains the maximum driving range with fewer position change counts, thus achieving efficient fuel saving.

Performance Evaluation of Electrically Driven Agricultural Implements Powered by an External Generator

In the last decade, many studies have been conducted on tractor and agricultural machinery electrification. In particular, the electrification of power take-off (PTO)-powered implements could support many benefits, such as improved comfort and safety during implement connection, less noisiness, accurate control of the implement rotational speed, and fuel consumption reduction. However, commercially available tractors do not generate sufficient electric power to run electrified implements. A solution to this issue is powering eventual electrified implements with an external electric generator powered by the PTO and mounted with the front three-point linkage. This study aimed to evaluate the potential benefits of using this combination with respect to PTO powered implements. The types of implements analyzed in detail in this study were a sprayer and a mulcher. Field tests were performed acquiring performance, operational, and environmental parameters. Results show that on the electrified implements, the absence of the cardan shaft and hydraulic remotes shortened the time required for the hitching phase and reduced the in-work noisiness. Field tests demonstrated that the electrified implements permitted an improvement of the fuel consumption per hectare, up to 33.3% and 29.8% lower than their PTO-powered homologue for the sprayer and the mulcher, respectively.

Predicting Fuel Consumption Reduction Potentials Based on 4D Trajectory Optimization with Heterogeneous Constraints

Investigating potential ways to improve fuel efficiency of aircraft operations is crucial for the development of the global air traffic management (ATM) performance target. The implementation of trajectory-based operations (TBOs) will play a major role in enhancing the predictability of air traffic and flight efficiency. TBO also provides new means for aircraft to save energy and reduce emissions. By comprehensively considering aircraft dynamics, available route limitations, sector capacity constraints, and air traffic control restrictions on altitude and speed, a “runway-to-runway” four-dimensional trajectory multi-objective planning method under loose-to-tight heterogeneous constraints is proposed in this paper. Taking the Shanghai–Beijing city pair as an example, the upper bounds of the Pareto front describing potential fuel consumption reduction under the influence of flight time were determined under different airspace rigidities, such as different ideal and realistic operating environments, as well as fixed and optional routes. In the congestion-free scenario with fixed route, the upper bounds on fuel consumption reduction range from 3.36% to 13.38% under different benchmarks. In the capacity-constrained scenario, the trade-off solutions of trajectory optimization are compressed due to limited available entry time slots of congested sectors. The results show that more flexible route options improve fuel-saving potentials up to 8.99%. In addition, the sensitivity analysis further illustrated the pattern of how optimal solutions evolved with congested locations and severity. The outcome of this paper would provide a preliminary framework for predicting and evaluating fuel efficiency improvement potentials in TBOs, which is meaningful for setting performance targets of green ATM systems.

Assessment of the Propulsion System Operation of the Ships Equipped with the Air Lubrication System

This paper is an attempt to evaluate the effectiveness of the ship’s hull air lubrication system in order to reduce the drag leading to fuel consumption reduction by ships. The available papers and reports were analyzed, in which records of the operation parameters of the propulsion system of ships equipped with this system were presented. These reports clearly show the advantages of using air lubrication system. On the basis of collected operating parameters of the propulsion system the authors performed analysis of operation effectiveness of the Air Lubrication System on the modern passenger ship was. The results of this analysis do not allow for a clearly positive opinion about its effectiveness. Additionally, the conditions that should be met for the system to be more effective and to significantly increase the propulsion efficiency were indicated.

Assessment and analysis of road transport driver’s behavior in terms of eco-driving

Eco driving courses are one of the methods to gain cost savings in transport companies. Road transport drivers equipped with appropriate knowledge of Eco- driving and defensive driving can reduce the costs of fuel consumption even by one third as compared to those involved in their previous driving style. This is the knowledge of a vehicle operation and ability to use driving techniques that leads to fuel consumption reduction. Based on the conducted tests, an analysis of behavior change of drivers who use Eco- driving in road transport systems has been performed. A comparison of the number of drivers’ reactions to road situations allows to determine percentage change in their behavior which leads to fuel-efficient and ecological driving.

Tuna Fisheries Fuel Consumption Reduction and Safer Operations

This chapter demonstrates the potential of tuna fishing fleets to reduce their fuel oil consumption. In the “Oceanic tuna fisheries, immediate operational choices” pilot, the data monitoring system on vessels periodically upload data to the server for shore analysis. The data analytics employs fuel oil consumption equations and propulsion engine fault detection models. The fuel consumption equations are being used to develop immediate operational decision models. The fault detection models are used to plan maintenance operations and to prevent unexpected engine malfunctions. The data-driven planning software allows probabilistic forecasting of tuna biomass distribution and analysing changes in fishing strategies leading to fuel consumption reduction. These changes in fishing strategies can be summarized as a transition from hunting to harvesting. Vessels do not search for fish, but instread take less risks and fish, where it is more likely that the fish can be found and is easier to capture. Buoy data are increasingly used to improve stock assessments and have the potential to allow better monitoring and planning of fish quotas fulfilment.

EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCH ON COMPREHENSIVE PERFORMANCE OF COUPLED MUFFLER BASED ON SPLIT-STREAM RUSHING PRINCIPLE

Based on the split-stream rushing principle and multi-unit coupling theory, a new type of coupled muffler for diesel engine was designed, and the experimental study on the acoustic performance and exhaust resistance performance was completed. The results show that the growth rate of insertion loss of the coupled muffler within 200 Hz is 34.01% compared to the original muffler. The average fuel consumption reduction rate of the diesel engine with the coupled muffler is 19.16% lower than that of the original muffler. Therefore, the coupled muffler can achieve the comprehensive goal of good acoustic performance and low exhaust resistance.