Sensitivity of light duty vehicle tailpipe emission rates from simplified portable emission measurement systems to variation in engine volumetric efficiency.

Light-duty gasoline vehicle (LDGV) tailpipe emission rates can be quantified based on pollutant concentrations measured using portable emission measurement systems (PEMS). Emission rates depend on exhaust flow. For simplified and micro-PEMS, exhaust flow is inferred from engine mass air flow (MAF) and air-to-fuel ratio. For many LDGVs, MAF is broadcast via the on-board diagnostic (OBD) interface. For some vehicles, only indirect indicators of MAF are broadcast. In such cases, MAF can be estimated using the speed-density method (SDM). The SDM requires an estimate of the engine volumetric efficiency (VE), which is the ratio of actual to theoretical MAF. VE is affected by intra-vehicle variability in the engine load and inter-vehicle variability in engine characteristics (e.g., the type of valvetrain). The suitability of SDM-based estimates of MAF in conjunction with simplified and micro-PEMS has not been adequately evaluated. Therefore, the objectives are to: (1) quantify VE accounting for intra- and inter-vehicle variability; and (2) evaluate the accuracy of SDM-based vehicle emission rate estimation approaches. Seventy-seven naturally-aspirated LDGVs were measured using PEMS. For each vehicle, VE was estimated using three approaches: (1) constant VE calibrated to actual fuel use; (2) average estimates of VE for Vehicle Specific Power modes imputed from OBD data; and (3) modeled VE using multilinear regression (MLR). The MLR models were developed based on engine load and engine characteristics. The best model was selected based on various statistical diagnostics. When engines were under load, variability in VE was most sensitive to variations in engine load. During idling, VE differed between engines depending on engine characteristics. The constant and modeled VE estimation approaches enable the accurate estimation of microscale and mesoscale emission rates, with errors typically within ±10% compared to values imputed from OBD data. Thus, accurate emission rates can be obtained from simplified and micro-PEMS. : Simplified and micro portable emission measurement systems (PEMS) enable widespread measurement of vehicle exhaust emission. As a cost saving measure, they estimate exhaust flow indirectly rather than via measurement, typically based on engine mass air flow (MAF). For some vehicles, MAF is not reported by the on-board diagnostic (OBD) system but can be inferred from other reported variables and volumetric efficiency (VE). However, VE is typically proprietary. Methods demonstrated here for estimating VE enable accurate quantification of emission rates, thereby enabling use of these PEMS for policy-relevant applications such as technology assessments, trends analysis, and emissions inventories.