Vehicle particulate analysis method and apparatus

An apparatus for characterizing particulate matter in gases emitted from the exhaust tailpipe of a moving vehicle, comprising:

• a sampler for retrieving gases emitted from the exhaust tailpipe;
• an ambient air mass flow controller adapted to be on a moving vehicle for supplying a controlled flow of ambient air;
• a gas mass flow controller adapted to be on the moving vehicle for providing controlled flow of the gases retrieved from the exhaust tailpipe;
• said controlled flow of gases mixed with the controlled flow of ambient air, thereby forming diluted samples of the gases containing volatile and non-volatile particulate matter;
• and
• a particulate analyzer adapted to be on the moving vehicle, said particulate analyzer measuring at least one parameter of the particulate matter.

An apparatus for measuring and characterizing particulate matter emitted from an engine, comprising:

• a mass analyzer for measuring the mass of the particulate matter;
• a particle analyzer counting the particles present in the particulate matter by particular size histogram entailing specific particle size groups;
• and
• a computer resolving the resulting measured mass and particle counts to estimates of the mass of said particles according to their size as defined by said size histogram.

A method of characterizing particulate matter in gases emitted from the exhaust tailpipe of a moving vehicle, comprising:

• providing a micro-dilution device on the vehicle;
• while the vehicle is moving retrieving samples of the gases and mixing said samples with ambient air with said micro-dilution device thereby forming diluted samples of the gases containing volatile and non-volatile particulate matter;
• and
• providing a particulate analyzer on the vehicle;
• retrieving a partial gas volume of said diluted samples and measuring at least one parameter of the volatile and non-volatile particulate matter with said particulate analyzer.

A method for characterizing particulate matter in gases emitted from the exhaust tailpipe of a moving vehicle, comprising:

• retrieving gases emitted from the exhaust tailpipe;
• supplying a controlled flow of ambient air on the vehicle;
• supplying controlled flow of the gases retrieved from the exhaust tailpipe on the vehicle;
• mixing said controlled flow of gases with the controlled flow of ambient air, thereby forming diluted samples of the gases containing volatile and non-volatile particulate matter;
• and
• providing a particulate analyzer adapted to be on the moving vehicle, said particulate analyzer measuring at least one parameter of the particulate matter.

Method for measuring and characterizing particulate matter emitted from an engine, comprising the steps of:

• measuring the mass of the particulate matter;
• counting the particles present in the particulate matter by particular size histogram entailing specific particle size groups;
• and
• resolving the resulting measured mass and particle counts to estimates of the mass of said particles according to their size as defined by said size histogram.