On the power demands of accessories on an agricultural tractor

Abstract

Recently, the number of accessories in vehicle powertrains has been significantly increased. These accessories are necessary for vehicle operation. Accessories are driven by the engine, so their power demands result in a reduction of the vehicle's useful power. For heavy-duty vehicles, the most demanding accessories are the alternator; fan drive; heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning compressor, and brake air compressor. Their power demands vary according to the engine speed, and this may lead to notable energy losses especially in certain conditions, such as engine idling. This paper aims to evaluate the accessories power demands on a tractor equipped with an engine rating of 192 kW. In this tractor, a data logger together with auxiliary sensors were installed to monitor their power demands. During idling conditions, accessories power demands reach 38% of the power provided by the engine and this leads to non-negligible impact on fuel consumption. The fuel consumption caused by accessories and their potential fuel savings by introducing electrically-driven accessories into tractor powertrains were estimated. A potential fuel saving of 232 l per year could be attained. This may lead to a yearly saving of 278 million litres of fuel and 747 thousand tons of CO2 in the US. These savings were calculated assuming that all tractors are used with the same duty cycle. Even if it may not occur, thus the actual savings may be significantly different than that reported in this study, it permits to estimate if farming may benefit from tractors with electrically driven accessories.