Technical Paper
Explicit Fuel Optimal Speed Profiles for Heavy Trucks on a Set of Topographic Road Profiles
2006-04-03
2006-01-1071
The problem addressed is how to drive a heavy truck over various road topographies such that the fuel consumption is minimized. Using a realistic model of a truck powertrain, an optimization problem for minimization of fuel consumption is formulated. Through the solutions of this problem optimal speed profiles are found. An advantage here is that explicit analytical solutions can be found, and this is done for a few constructed test roads. The test roads are constructed to be easy enough to enable analytical solutions but still capture the important properties of real roads. In this way the obtained solutions provide explanations to some behaviour obtained by ourselves and others using more elaborate modeling and numeric optimization like dynamic programming. The results show that for level road and in small gradients the optimal solution is to drive with constant speed.