Potential impact of active tire pressure management on fuel consumption reduction in passenger vehicles

Active tire pressure management, through an automatic, electro-pneumatic, central tire inflation system, is here proposed as a means of improving fuel consumption in passenger vehicles, as well as safety and drivability. A brief description of the active tire pressure control system, which has been set up at the Politecnico di Torino, is provided as a reference. Different strategies, aimed at reducing rolling resistance, through inflation pressure management, under specific vehicle working conditions, are then illustrated. The fuel benefits that can be achieved by adopting these strategies in passenger vehicles are studied by means of computer simulations using a proprietary software for vehicle performance and fuel consumption estimation. Coast-down coefficients, evaluated experimentally during deceleration tests on a closed track, are generally available at the reference tire pressure prescribed by the original equipment manufacturer of the vehicle. These fixed coefficients can then be used to describe the vehicle in simulation environments. LaClair’s relation, which illustrates the influence of tire inflation pressure on rolling resistance, has therefore been used to recalculate the coast-down coefficients as functions of the tire pressure. This has allowed fuel consumption simulations to be performed on the reference B-segment passenger car under different working conditions. In particular, the following pressure management strategies have been studied: adaptation of the inflation pressure to the vertical load, variation of the inflation pressure during tire warm-up, and adjustment of the inflation pressure, according to the average speed (urban/highway driving). The performed simulations have demonstrated that if the standard tire pressure is maintained, fuel consumption could be reduced by up to 2% in real-world driving; further advantages could be obtained by varying the target pressure as a function of the current working conditions of the vehicle.