Fuel efficient offroad transport

Research Project, 2011 – 2014

The usage of construction equipment performing off-road transports varies
greatly. The product characteristics of the machines in terms of fuel consumption,
durability etc. thus also varies. Therefore a machine with good performance and
good fuel efficiency for one type of operation does not necessarily have the same
response for another type.

The project at hand has developed methods to retrieve information on how
articulated haulers are used. This data has been used to understand machine
independent characteristics of the sites. In this project, the focus has mainly been
on characterizing topography and rolling resistance of the sites. These machine
independent characteristics can be used to recreate the customers’ behavior and
environment in simulation and physical tests.

The information provided through these methods enables Volvo CE to better
dimension the machines in terms of strength and driveline concepts. This is done
to achieve better fuel efficiency and sufficient life.