Examination of the Size-Resolved and Transient Nature of Motor Vehicle Particle Emissions

Abstract

This paper reports mass measurements, size distributions, and the transient response of tailpipe particulate emissions from 21 recent model gasoline vehicles. Transient measurement are made for the FTP drive cycle (and limited ECE test) using a scanning mobility particle sizer and an electrical low-pressure impactor. The particles emitted in vehicle exhaust have diameters in the 10-300 nm diameter range, with a mean diameter of about 60 nm. Particle emissions during the drive cycles occur as narrow peaks that correlate with vehicle acceleration. Cold start emissions generally outweight those from a hot start by more than a factor of 3. Particulate mass deduced from the transient distributions agrees semiquantitatively with gravimetric measurements. Tailpipe particulate emissions from the recent model gasoline vehicles tested are very low, with mass emission rated ranging downward from 7 mg/mi for a light-duty truck druing the cold start phase of the FTP drive cycle to less than or equal to 0.1 mg/mi during phase 2 for nearly half of the test vehicles. Three high-mileage (greater than 100 K mi) test vehicles exhibited similarly low particulate emission rates. The FTP-weighted 3-bag average is under 2 mg/mi for all the conventional gasoline vehicles tested. (A)