Evaluation of an Automated Driveability Rating System (AVL-DRIVE(TM)) during the 2013 CRC Intermediate-Temperature E15 Cold-Start and Warm-Up Vehicle Driveability Program.

摘要

An intermediate ambient temperature (40°F ± 5°F) vehicle test program was conducted by the Coordinating Research Council, (CRC) Inc. to determine the effect of Driveability Index (DI) and ethanol content level on cold-start and warm-up driveability performance in a group of US high sales volume, late model vehicles. The test program was conducted on an outdoor test track from February 4, 2013, through March 22, 2013, in Yakima, Washington. The program report was published in April 2014 and entitled, “2013 CRC INTERMEDIATE-TEMPERATURE E15 COLD-START AND WARM-UP VEHICLE DRIVEABILITY PROGRAM”, (Report No. 666), which can be found on the www.crcao.org website. During the cold start and warm-up vehicle driveability program, a second parallel program was simultaneously conducted to evaluate an automated computer and sensor based driveability rating system called AVL-DRIVETM. Details of the AVL-DRIVE System can be found in the attached AVL report, PEI-PEI0695 Rev 3 April 2015, “Investigation into Using AVL-DRIVE to Determine Fuel Quality Impacts of a Range of Fuel Blends.” CRC personnel desired to become familiar with the automated rating system and determine its viability for potential future vehicle driveability programs. To do so, six of the 40 test vehicles were instrumented with the AVL-DRIVE equipment during the vehicle screening process. Two of the six instrumented test vehicles were then selected from the 18 screened vehicles to continue the automated ratings for entire test program and therefore were tested on all 10 test fuels. Post-test statistical analyses and correlations were developed between the CRC driveability raters and the AVL-DRIVE System driveability scoring. A summary of key learnings are listed in this cover letter section along with the full program report prepared by AVL.