Abstract
This study aims to verify how the winter road surface impacts on running resistance and fuel efficiency, and to derive a method to calculate running resistance and fuel efficiency quantitatively at any given road condition in consideration of snow and ice on road surface.
A series of coast down tests and fuel consumption testing were conducted on test road with several types of icy or snow-covered surface in winter. The acquired data were then analyzed. It was found that running resistance and fuel efficiency was influenced by the existence of snow and ice on road surface. Running resistance on snow-covered road was higher than that on dry surface. Fuel efficiency on snow-covered road surface was lower than that on dry surface. Regression expressions as a function of vehicle speed, IRI and density of snow were obtained. Using these expressions, we can calculate running resistance and fuel efficiency quantitatively in consideration of snow and ice on road surface.
