Engineering >> Industrial & Management SystemsEstimating the Most Fuel-Cost Efficient Routeby Christian Sullivan
Submitted : Spring 2014 Given two route options, (either over a mountain or around a mountain) a given firm needs to decide which route will be the most fuel-cost efficient to send their truck drivers for a pick up. To be able to determine this, the route with the lowest power and work demand on the engine should be chosen. This notion is based on the general idea that as energy and power increase, fuel consumption will also increase due to the fact that more energy is required to match the power demand. More energy means more fuel in terms of an internal combustion engine. After finding the arc lengths of both route options thereby finding the distance to be traveled, we could then determine which route seemed the most fuel efficient by using elementary physics equations such as Newton’s Second Law. Taking the path around the mountain, resulted in the minimum amount of power needed leading us to conclude that going around the mountain would be the most fuel-cost efficient route. Related Links:
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