Analysis, Assessment and Simulation of the Real Driving Emissions Legislation

This master thesis in collaboration with FEV Italia s.r.l. concerns the analysis and application of the Real Driving Emissions legislation, along with the simulation and reproduction of the CO2 emissions of a PHEV over the homologation cycles. Due to the increasing gap between homologation and real word driving emissions, the type approval procedures have been updated with the introduction of real driving on-road tests with the goal to reduce the pollutant and CO2 emissions. Those tests rely on a new technology usage, the Portable Emissions Measurement Systems (PEMS), that connected to the vehicle OBD and tailpipe allows the real time measurement of the vehicle’s exhaust gasses. Along with the increased effectiveness of the type approval procedure, the new legislation introduces complexity in the homologation procedure in terms of technology used, criteria for the cycle compliance and execution. In this thesis, divided in two parts, the first one is the result of the work carried out in FEV Italia s.r.l. and analyses the new legislation and the reasons behind its application, along with the analysis of the PEMS modules and working principles, installation on the vehicle and difficulties related to the cycle execution. In the second part a PHEV is considered, implementing a GT-Suite dynamic model for the simulation of NEDC, WLTP and RDE homologation cycles, and comparing the simulation results with the experimental emissions obtained on chassis dynamometer.