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Novel approach for connecting real driving emissions to the European vehicle laboratorial certification test procedure

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Abstract

Vehicle emission certification is evaluated under laboratorial conditions, where vehicles perform a standard driving cycle in controlled conditions leading to several critics, which have resulted in the implementation of the Worldwide harmonized Light Vehicle Test Procedure (WLTP) and the Real Driving Emissions (RDE) testing procedure, as a complementary certification procedure. RDE is still under debate since boundary conditions; evaluation and trip selection methods are still being studied to allow test reproducibility. Currently, the official data analysis method uses the moving average window (MAW_EC), based on the WLTP CO2 emissions for trip validity evaluation (RDE package 4) and emissions (RDE package 3). However, this does not consider the impact of vehicle dynamics. Consequently, this work focuses on developing a novel method to relate certification driving cycle dynamics and on-road test vehicle dynamics, to evaluate RDE tests fuel use and exhaust emissions in a comparable way to certification driving cycles, indicating how close, or far, real-world driving is from the laboratorial certification test. For this, a new method was developed called road vehicle evaluation method (ROVET), which relies on the cycle vehicle dynamic and on-road trip dynamics for assessing if both tests are comparable. Results from 5 measured vehicles with a portable emissions measurement system (PEMS) through reproducibility tests and 2 case studies, show that the ROVET provides results closer to the certification calculated reference than the most commonly used method in Europe (1% avg. difference for ROVET while 8% avg. difference for MAW_EC, regarding CO2 emission, for example). The use of vehicle dynamics on construction and references of a method could be used to incentivize the regulators to review the references used by the current used methods, which suffers several criticisms since their release. As the regulated methods are in constant update, this study could be useful for helping to improve or to be used as additional method for future vehicle certification procedures.

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Abbreviations

a:

Acceleration [m/s2]

CI:

Compression ignition

CO:

Carbon monoxide

CO2 :

Carbon dioxide

DOC:

Diesel oxidation catalytic converter

DPF:

Diesel particulate filter

EC:

European Commission

EPA:

United States Environmental Protection Agency

FTP-75:

EPA Federal Test Procedure

GPS:

Global Positioning System

Grade:

Road slope

HC:

Hydrocarbons

HDV:

Heavy-duty vehicles

ICE:

Internal combustion engine

ISC:

In-service conformity

IST-PEMS:

Instituto Superior Técnico Portable Emission Measurement System

JRC:

Joint Research Center

LDV:

Light-duty vehicle

MAW_EC:

Moving average window

MOVES:

Motor vehicle emissions simulator

MPFI:

Multi point fuel injection

NEDC:

New European Driving Cycle

NO:

Nitrogen oxide

NO2 :

Nitrogen dioxide

NOx :

Nitrogen oxides

O2 :

Oxygen

PB:

Power binning

PEMS:

Portable emissions measurement system

RDE:

Real driving emissions

ROVET:

Road vehicle evaluation method

SI:

Spark ignition

SPF:

Specific standardized power frequency

TWC:

Three-way catalytic converter

UNECE:

United Nations Economic Commission for Europe

v:

Speed [m/s]

VSE:

Vehicle specific energy

VSP:

Vehicle specific power

WLTC:

Worldwide Harmonized Light Vehicle Test Cycle

WLTP:

Worldwide Harmonized Light Vehicle Test Procedure

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Acknowledgments

Acknowledgments are to the National Council of Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq–Brazil) for the Doctoral financial support of Roberto Aliandro Varella (202097/2014-5). Patrícia C. Baptista acknowledges Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia for financing her contract (CEECIND/02589/2017).

Funding

This study is funded by the Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia for IN+ Strategic Project UID/EEA/50009/2013 and project UID/EMS/00712/2013. This study is funded by the Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia for IN+ Strategic Project UID/EEA 50009/2019 and IDMEC, under LAETA, project UID/EMS/00712/2019.

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Correspondence to Roberto A. Varella.

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Research highlights

• Presents a novel data analysis method for evaluating on-road emissions data

• The developed method establishes a connection between the RDE tested vehicle and the laboratorial certification procedure.

• Use of vehicle dynamics as fundamental parameter, mainly vehicle specific energy

• The developed method provides results closer to the certification than the most commonly used method (1% avg. difference for ROVET while 8% avg. difference for MAW_EC, regarding CO2 emission)

Appendices

Annex 1. Emissions sensitivity analysis

Emissions sensitivity was tested for CO2 and NOx distance specific emissions (see Fig. 12), since they constitute the main emissions researched at transportation area (Degraeuwe et al. 2016; Fontaras et al. 2017; Franco et al. 2016; Haq and Weiss 2016; Ligterink 2017; O’Driscoll et al. 2016; Stewart et al. 2015; Triantafyllopoulos et al. 2018). Speed variation, specifically when multiplied by 4 and 2, influences the results, mostly because CO2 emissions are influenced by the larger number of windows, hence increasing the emissions. A small number of windows (v/2 and v/4) do not change the result considerably (1%), providing a stable behavior. The VSP influence is also reduced, and the combination of speed and VSP behavior is mostly influenced by the speed. In addition, the speed and VSP criteria chosen lead to good results in terms of difference from certification. Both are near the respective certifications, presenting an average deviation of 0.5% for vehicle no. 1 and 0.25% for vehicle no. 2.

Fig. 12
figure 12

Distance specific CO2 emissions sensibility

The same procedure was performed for NOx distance specific emissions, as presented in Fig. 13. Again, the influence of speed is observed, particularly when the filter is larger, presenting an average deviation of 19% for vehicle no. 1 and 2% for vehicle no. 2.

It is important to underline that, since vehicle no. 1 is a CI vehicle and vehicle no. 2 is a SI vehicle, the NOx emission magnitude is different between propulsion technologies.

Fig. 13
figure 13

Distance specific NOx emissions sensibility

Annex 2. Emissions sensitivity analysis

ROVET vs MAW_EC vs certification regarding CO2

Figure 14 provides a comparison between ROVET, MAW_EC method, and certification values (these values were estimated for the total cycle and its phases), for both vehicle nos.1 and 2 and for the two trips. MAW_EC results are presented for the total trip performed and driving category (urban, rural, and motorway). Thus, for comparing the certification and ROVET analysis from the phases of the WLTC, the logic applied to calculating the reference points of the MAW_EC was used, which considers the CO2 value of the WLTC for the phase 1, phase 3, and phase 4. Thus, urban, rural, and motorway results are compared to the phases 1, 3, and 4 of the ROVET analysis and certification calculated value.

Fig. 14
figure 14

CO2 distance specific emissions for vehicle nos. 1 and 2 and for trips 1 and 2

ROVET vs MAW vs certification regarding NOx

Figure 15 presents the results of the comparison between the ROVET, MAW_EC and certification for both vehicle nos. 1 and 2 and for the two trips performed, regarding NOx. ROVET results are closer or under the certification reference than the MAW_EC in 10% average for the ROVET against 31% to the MAW_EC. This may be an effect of the use of dynamic data as reference, instead of CO2 emission as reference, which is a consequence of the dynamic parameters, such as speed, acceleration, and road grade. It is important to state that NOx emissions on SI vehicle tend to have lower magnitudes than CI, which can give a scale effect on the presentation of results. It is also interesting to note that for the total and phases analysis, both methods behave similarly, indicating that both follow a good correlation within each other.

Fig. 15
figure 15

NOx distance specific emissions for vehicle nos. 1 and 2 and for trips 1 and 2

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Varella, R.A., Ribau, J.P., Baptista, P.C. et al. Novel approach for connecting real driving emissions to the European vehicle laboratorial certification test procedure. Environ Sci Pollut Res 26, 35163–35182 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-019-06484-1

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