Minimising fuel consumption of vehicles as a function of path parameters

Minimizing fuel consumption is a major concern as far as sustainable engineering is concerned. This paper deals with minimizing the fuel consumed by the transportation sector and considers the specific case of light duty vehicles. It is proposed that the net fuel consumed by a vehicle when travelling from one place to another is a not only a factor of distance, but also of other path parameters like congestion on the road, the road gradient and the pavement structure. Hence, the most fuel efficient path between two points is not necessarily the shortest in terms of distance, the parameters mentioned must be taken into consideration as well. This paper quantifies these parameters via a brief analysis of literature and then shows via an example that the premise that the shortest path need not be the most fuel efficient is true.