Evaluating the Real-World NOx Emission from a China VI Heavy-Duty Diesel Vehicle

Abstract

The manufacturers of China VI heavy-duty vehicles were required to conduct in-service conformity (ISC) tests by using a portable emissions measurement system (PEMS). The moving averaging window (MAW) method was used to evaluate the NOx emission required by the China VI emission standard. This paper presented the results of four PEMS tests of a China VI (step B) N3 category vehicle. Our analyses revealed that the real NOx emission of the test route was much higher than the result evaluated by the MAW method. We also found the data produced during the urban section of a PEMS test was completely excluded from the evaluation based on the current required boundary conditions. Therefore, in order to ensure the objectivity of the evaluation, this paper proposed three different evaluation methods. Method 1 merely set the power threshold as 10% for valid MAWs; Method 2 reclassified the MAWs into “Urban MAWs”, “Rural MAWs” and “Motorway MAWs” according to the vehicle speed. Method 3 reclassified the MAWs into “Hot MAWs” and “Cold MAWs” according to engine coolant temperature. The NOx emission evaluation results for Method 1 were not satisfactory, but those for Method 2 and Method 3 were close to the real NOx emission, the errors were all within ±10%.