A FRAMEWORK FOR THE ANALYSIS OF ENERGY USE IN TRANSPORT

Much research in recent years has been focussed on the use of energy by different forms of transport and good progress has been made in some areas. Unfortunately the field still lacks an agreed terminology and standard approach for dealing with the use and performance quantities such as energy efficiency or energy intensiveness. The problem is discussed and empirical information for passenger and freight transport is presented in a diagrammatic form specifically designed to counter difficulties which arise when data for different transport modes are collected under widely varying conditions. A theoretical framework for analysing the various factors which influence energy efficiency in different modes is then proposed. This makes use of concepts similar to the use of non-dimensional number groupings in order to draw together the effects of individual, but related, factors which describe the basic dynamics of the vehicle, the way in which its load carrying potential is utilised, the manner in which it is operated and the effect of system aggregation to take account of indirect energy consumption. (Author/TRRL)