Design and Validation of the Opitcal Sampling System for the Periodical Test of the Particle Emission from Vehicle

Growing demands for real-time and mobile monitoring of the particulate matter emitted by vehicle exhaust (e.g., diesel cars) derives the development of low-weight and low-cost particle sensors. Among different air quality monitoring sensors, mobile optical particle counters (OPCs) can detect the particle concentration in the urban environment. However, because of their working conditions, they are not efficiently working at high temperatures, humid, and high concentrated environment (e.g. emission from vehicle exhaust). This paper describes the development of a sensor, including OPC, designed to detect particulate matter concentration directly at the vehicle tailpipe. Due to the effect of the temperature and water vapour condensation on the sensor accuracy, both exhaust emission parameters have been calculated. The theoretical results show that the sensor can correctly work under the different temperature of sampled emission.