Fuel Economy Performance Calculator

MATLAB script for predicting the fuel economy of a Shell Eco-Marathon/SAE Supermileage Vehicle

Proven to be the most fuel efficient driving technique, the team plans to implement electronically modulated ‘coast-and-burn’ method for the 2016 Shell Eco-Marathon, Asia competition. With the aid of Ecotrons Fuel Injection chipset, all engine parameters and variables were meticulously noted for preliminary calculations. Similarly, structural analysis and CFD simulations were extensively exploited to obtain all the physical parameters governing the various drag forces acting on the vehicle whilst it’s in motion. Moreover, track conditions like ambient temperature, density of air and tyre temperatures were scrutinized and incorporated into the mathematical model for the purpose of computing the vehicle’s fuel efficiency figure.
As the competition regulations requires the vehicle to maintain an average track speed of 30 km/h, it was decided that the engine kill speed would be 55km/h and the speed at which the engine would be restarted is 10km/h. Although these values may not result in the most optimized ‘coast-and-burn’ strategy, they serve to provide an idealized datum for the purpose of primary mathematical modelling.
Most of the values in the model are fed and processed in SI units to facilitate simplicity of data interpretation and coding in the software. The model includes as many physical driving parameters as possible in an attempt to realistically evaluate the vehicle performance even before the prototype gets fabricated, thereby, facilitating the team estimate performance gains, expected competition standing and to improvise existing sub-systems of the vehicle to enhance the final fuel economy figure.