Analysis of the operation states of internal combustion engine in the Real Driving Emissions test

Internal combustion engines represent the largest share of motor vehicle propulsion types. Despite the introduction of alternative drives (hybrid and electric), combustion engines will continue to be the main factor in the development of transport. Therefore, work related to their technological development and reduction of their harmful effects on human health and the environment is required. The development of internal combustion engines can be seen in two directions: technological changes resulting in increased efficiency of such engines and the second direction connected with limitation of exhaust gas emission. The present work is included in the second direction of research interests and concerns the analysis of various operating conditions of internal combustion engines. The operating states, both static and dynamic, determine the operational properties of internal combustion engines, such as fuel and energy consumption as well as pollutant emissions. Sofar, such operating conditions have only been mapped on a chassis dynamometer in various homologation tests. The course of the type approval test was known and the conditions of measurement were also known, which made it impossible to introduce a random factor into such tests. Currently, these properties are determined in tests performed in real vehicle operating conditions – RDE (Real Driving Emissions). Such tests are representing real operating conditions of motor vehicles. Limitations for performing tests in real traffic conditions are, apart from formal requirements concerning the duration and distance of individual parts, the dynamic conditions of vehicles determined by the speed and acceleration of the vehicle. The study analyzed the properties of vehicle speed processes and engine operating states in the RDE test, taking into account its individual phases – driving in urban, rural and motorway conditions. Engine operation states are the processes of the engine rotational speed and its relative torque. It was found that the dynamic properties of the vehicle speed process are much more significant than the engine operating states. It was also found that the road emission of pollutants in the RDE test, which is the property of vehicles measured in the test, the motorway phase properties have greatest impact.