Abstract:
In the world today, due to the high cost of running a vehicle, there had been many research to
see ways of minimizing the cost of usage of vehicle. Some of these costs come from the tyre
of the vehicle, amount of fuel needed to run the vehicle smoothly, buying spare parts of vehicles
and ensuring safety of the vehicle. The study assessed the effects of vehicle tyre pressures and
its influence on the fuel consumption. The study employed both qualitative and quantitative
statistical procedures to characterized and analysed the data of GCAA. The study was carried
out to find out whether these deviations in the tyre pressure of the vehicles have effect on fuel
consumed by the sampled vehicles. Three (3) Toyota Coaster Buses and Two (2) Nissan Urvan
minibuses sampled as 1’, 2’, 3’, 4’, and 5 were studied. Out of the 160 (100%) vehicles
surveyed in the Kotoka International Airport, only 2.5% had the recommended tyre pressure,
indicating that 97.5% of the vehicles surveyed deviated from the recommended standard tyre
pressures. It was clear that there was direct influence of the vehicles tyre pressure on the fuel
consumption. It indicated that when tyre pressure deviate from the recommended tyre pressure,
there was an additional fuel consumption by the vehicle. Detailed the result of sample one (1)
indicated that (10%) tyre pressure deviated above the recommended tyre pressure which gave
an additional fuel loss of 2.72 litres during the travelled from Kumasi to Accra and returned
millage of 540km/h. Again, 10.87 litres and 24.46 litres of additional fuel would be incurred
for twenty percent (20%) and thirty percent (30%) tyre pressure deviation below the
recommended standard tyre pressure influence travelled from Kumasi Airport to Accra (KIA)
and returned for samples 2 and 3, respectively. The values of the distance travelled, fuel
consumed and tyre pressure for all the samples of the vehicles were also characterized and
analysed. Finally, it was clear that any deviation of vehicle tyre pressure had influenced on the
usage of the vehicle economy (low-cost).
Description:
A PROJECT REPORT SUBMITTED TO THE DEPARTMENT OF MECHANICAL
AND AUTOMOTIVE EDUCATION, FACULTY OF TECHNICAL EDUCATION,
SUBMITTED TO THE SCHOOL OF GRADUATE STUDIES, UNIVERSITY OF
EDUCATION, WINNEBA, AND IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF REQUIREMENT
FOR THE AWARD OF MASTER OF TECHNOLOGY IN MECHANICAL AND
AUTOMOTIVE TECHNOLOGY EDUCATION