Prediction of Fuel Consumption of Agricultural Tractors

Abstract

A mathematical model was developed to predict fuel consumption of agricultural tractors using their official OECD tractor test data. It was found from the data analysis that the fuel consumption at varying load with full throttle is proportional to engine power, and the difference in fuel consumptions at varying load with full and reduced throttles is equal regardless of engine power if their speed difference is the same. The model developed based on this assumption can predict the fuel consumption under any operational conditions. The model was validated by comparing the predicted and measured fuel consumptions of the selected four tractor models tested by the OECD test code. The percentage errors of the predicted fuel consumptions ranged from 0.11% to 4.67% at varying load with full throttle at standard PTO speed and from 1.36% to 9.15% at partial load with reduced throttle. Although the prediction model needs further improvement, the method developed in this study may be used to estimate reasonably the fuel consumptions of a given tractor under various operational conditions.