Derivation of a Representative Engine Duty Cycle from On-Road Heavy-Duty Vehicle Driving Data

The heavy-duty vehicle fleet involved in delivering water and sand makes noticeable issues of exhaust emissions and fuel consumption in the process of shale gas development. To examine the possibility of converting these heavy-duty diesel engines to run on natural gas-diesel dual-fuel, a transient engine duty cycle representing the real-world engine working conditions is necessary. In this paper, a methodology is proposed, and a target engine duty cycle comprising of 2231 seconds is developed from on-road data collected from 11 on-road sand and water hauling trucks. The similarity of inherent characteristics of the developed cycle and the base trip observed is evidenced by the 2.05% error of standard deviation and average values for normalized engine speed and engine torque. Our results show that the proposed approach is expected to produce a representative cycle of in-use heavy-duty engine behavior.