Modelling carbon emissions of diesel trucks on longitudinal slope sections in China

Carbon emissions are the primary reason that contributes to global warming. The gradient has a significant impact on the carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions produced by trucks. The aim of the current paper is to propose a carbon emission quantification model for diesel trucks on longitudinal slope sections and investigate the influence of gradient on the carbon emissions of trucks for use in the low-carbon highway design. The law of conservation of mechanical energy, the first law of thermodynamics, and the vehicle longitudinal dynamics theory were adopted for deriving the carbon emission model of the trucks on the flat, uphill, downhill and round-trip longitudinal slope segments. Three kinds of common trucks were chosen to conduct the field test. Following the test data, the model demonstrates a high accuracy. The minimum gradient which is expected to impact carbon emissions of trucks on the round-trip longitudinal slope sections was the balance gradient as revealed. The gradient of the longitudinal slope is required to be avoided to be greater in comparison with the balance gradient for the achievement of the two-way traffic low carbon operation on a highway. The results of this study are valuable to researchers interested in low carbon road design and low carbon transportation control.