Effect of Wide-Based Single Tires on Fuel Efficiency of Class 8 Combination Trucks

Abstract

In 2007 and 2008, the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, in collaboration with several industry partners, collected real-world performance and situational data for long-haul operations of Class- 8 trucks from a fleet engaged in normal freight operations. Such data and information is useful to support Class-8 modeling of heavy-truck performance, technology evaluation efforts for energy efficiency, and to provide a means of accounting for real-world driving performance within heavy-truck research and analyses. This paper presents some general statistics, including distribution of idling times during long-haul trucking operations. However, the main focus is on the analysis of some of the extensive real-world information collected in this project, specifically on the assessment of the effect that different types of tires (i.e., dual tires vs. new generation single wide-based tires or NGSWBTs) have on the fuel efficiency of Class-8 trucks. The tire effect is also evaluated as a function of the vehicle load level. In all cases analyzed, the statistical tests performed strongly suggest that fuel efficiencies achieved when using all NGSWBTs or combinations of duals and NGSWBTs are higher than in the case of a truck equipped with all dual tires.