Development of Heavy Duty Diesel Real World Drive Cycles for Fuel Economy Measurements 2013-01-2568

Over several years, a fuel economy test measurement technique has been developed to highlight the magnitude of benefits expected in real world applications of different heavy-duty vehicle (HDV) engine oils in an operating vehicle. This method provides discriminatory results using an alternative to the widely used gravimetric fuel measurement methodology of Brake Specific Fuel Consumption (BSFC), in order to measure gains of <2% in a more repeatable manner.For the results to prove meaningful to the wider commercial audience, such as vehicle operators, original equipment manufacturers and oil providers, the systemic test vehicle operating conditions need to closely represent on-road conditions experienced on a daily basis by long haul, heavy duty diesel vehicles.This paper describes the parameters, necessary measures and methodologies required to record real world data and create representative proving ground test cycles. Data accumulation, over a period of 12 months and in excess of 150,000 km, using high speed data logging, has recorded multiple engine and vehicle parameters from both the Control Area Network Binary Unit System (CANBus) and auxiliary instrumentation.Remote data downloads have been processed and interpreted to generate a new drive cycle solely for the purpose of proving fuel economy benefits between engine oils. A method based on accelerations per unit distance and cumulative time spent within set speed ranges was developed. Continuous development and iterative process improvements have led to refinements in the running procedures that now closely represent everyday operating conditions in heavy duty vehicles.