Principle and purpose
Whereas in electric traction on-board energy measurements are a
prerequisite for exact energy billing, in diesel traction such a problem does
not arise for obvious reasons.
However, the introduction of fuel flow meters in diesel stock could make the
actual fuel consumption visible for drivers in real time. This information will
draw the attention to the load dependence of energy efficiency and facilitate an
energy efficient driving style. Besides raising general awareness of diesel
consumption, diesel meters help to verify LCC guarantees given by manufacturers
and provide relevant information to evaluate energy efficiency measures.
Diesel stock is usually not equipped with diesel flow meters but such
measuring devices exist and an integration into existing stock should not meet
any major hurdles.
Technical details
Diesel flow meters measure the fuel flow in the ducts from the fuel tank to
the engine. Since the diesel flow at a particular moment is of limited interest,
there is usually an additional tool processing the measured data to provide
aggregated consumption profiles (at a 15 min or other rate). |