Evaluation of the impact of ambient temperature on fuel consumption by diesel and CNG buses

Abstract

The paper is devoted to the problem of bus operation in various climatic, road and transport conditions. The reasons for replacing diesel buses with more environmentally friendly ones using natural gas are described. Experimental studies on the operation of large-class buses –LiAZ-529265 diesel bus and LiAZ-529267 CNG bus in an urban environment are given. The dependences of the influence of various ambient temperatures on fuel consumption are obtained, and mathematical models that describe these dependences are proposed. The range of studied temperatures is from minus 31°C to +37°C. As a result of drivingexperiments, it was found that the natural gas consumption of the LiAZ-529267 bus is 23-24% higher than that of the diesel counterpart under similar road and transport operating conditions. The deviation between the minimum and maximum values of diesel fuel consumption is 37-45%. For compressed natural gas, the deviations were 36-43%. However, the equivalent cost of purchasing natural gas is 52% lower than that of diesel fuel.