Exhaust Emissions from Euro 6 Vehicles in WLTC and RDE—Part 1: Methodology and Similarity Conditions Studies

Abstract

The article is an attempt to perform an ecological assessment of passenger cars with various types of engines in road emission tests. The main research problem and, at the same time, the goal was to develop a method for determining the exhaust emissions from motor vehicles in real traffic conditions based on results obtained in homologation tests. The tests were carried out on vehicles equipped with gasoline, diesel, and hybrid engines, and the obtained results were analyzed. All of the selected vehicles were of the same class—passenger cars, with a similar curb weight, similar maximum engine power, and in the same emission class (Euro 6d). The authors compared the dynamic parameters of vehicle motion in established emission tests: Worldwide harmonized Light vehicles Test Cycles and Real Driving Emissions. Four procedures were used to analyze and compare the operating conditions of the vehicles in the WLTC and RDE tests, differing in how the phases in the tests were divided as well as having a different methodology for determining the road emissions in the tests. The procedures were as follows: WLTC (where the test was divided and the determination of the road emission of exhaust gases was carried out according to the standard WLTP procedure), RDE (the road test was divided into sections and the exhaust emission was determined according to the standard RDE procedure), WLTC1+2 (the test was divided into phases: 1 + 2, 3, and 4; a combination of phases 1 and 2 corresponding to the urban section of the RDE test), WLTCRDE (where drive phases were divided and emissions determined in the same way as in the RDE procedure, which assumes the division of the test into sections based on vehicle speed). The implementation of the research task in the form of an algorithm procedure when comparing the dynamic parameters of the movement in the WLTC and RDE tests is the leading goal presented in this article. The division of the WLTC test into sections (urban, rural, and motorway) according to the RDE procedure and also the calculation of the total emissions in the test according to this procedure resulted in obtaining similar road emission values in the test.