In this work, the authors focused on analyzing the energy efficiency and
dynamics during car acceleration, featuring investigation of acceleration
dynamics under various acceleration intensities. The tests were
performed in the speed range between 45 km/h and 120 km/h, at a
constant gear ratio. This enabled obtaining variable dynamic parameters
of the acceleration process, ranging from about 0.1 to 1.4 m/s2
, and
recording variation in fuel consumption from 6.28 to 27.03 dm3
/100km.
The study focused on determining the relation between fuel
consumption, energy efficiency and vehicle acceleration depending on
the available drivetrain power. The relation between fuel consumption
and vehicle acceleration was described by using the dynamic index. The
proposed dynamic index takes into account the energy (from burned
fuel) and vehicle acceleration intensity to obtain an objective metric for
characterizing the acceleration process. The aforementioned index takes
the form of the passenger car movement energy quality index and can be
related to widely known physical properties, thus ensuring its
universality. The index expresses the energy expenditure within the time
needed to accelerate a vehicle weighing 1kg by a 1m distance. As
opposed to other criteria that are applied to the assessment of passenger
cars dynamics, the index shows a high determination coefficient R2 in
excess of 0.99, and can be used as a universal metric to test other vehicle
types.