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PEMS-Based Approach to Developing and Evaluating Driving Cycles for
Air Quality Assessment
Principal Investigator: Dr.
Lei Yu
Sponsoring Agency: Southwest
Region University Transportation Center (SWUTC)
Collaborator:
None
Period: September
1, 2008 ~ August 31, 2009
Research
Abstract:
A
driving cycle is the fundamental concept in conducting the emission
testing and modeling. The quality of a driving cycle is directly
associated with the accuracy of any air quality analysis, and
therefore whether the emission reductions can be achieved. In the
past years, numerous driving cycles have been developed for a
variety of practical purposes, while the development of the
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) approved national standard
emission factor model MOBILE 6 uses the Federal Test Procedures
(FTP) driving cycles, which were legally established in the Federal
Codes. These widely used driving cycles bring considerable
uncertainties when the emission estimation is carried out for a
specific city or region. Further, the existing driving cycles have
been developed based only on the driving activities, e.g. speed
profiles of vehicles, without capturing the characteristics of
emission profiles. In this context, the proposed research is
intended to achieve two primary objectives. The first objective is
to develop driving cycles for classified roads incorporating a
vehicle’s both driving activities and emission characteristics,
using the data collected by Portable Emission Measurement System
(PEMS), which was not either available or has never been used in
developing driving cycles. Houston is used in the case study for
this purpose. A comprehensive database will be established for the
collected data and a sophisticated computer program will be
developed to generate the specific driving cycles. The second
objective is to develop an evaluation approach of driving cycles in
which the Vehicle Specific Power (VSP), a parameter that can readily
connect the driving modes with emissions, is used to evaluate how
well the driving cycles can represent the driving and emission
characteristics on real roads. The proposed methodology for
generating driving cycles will then be evaluated for its
effectiveness on the emission estimation based on a comparative
analysis with the current emission inventory and the other
methodologies. The conclusions from this research will help
establish a more accurate approach for developing emission
inventories and therefore are of significant to the effort of
emission reductions.
Research Information
For further information about the research, please contact Dr. Lei
Yu by telephone at (713) 313-6809 or by e-mail at
yu_lx@tsu.edu.
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