EXPERIMENTAL AND NUMERICAL INVESTIGATION OF IDLING CAR EXPOSURE

摘要

The effect of the distance maintained between vehicles in heavy traffic conditions with respect to a reduction in car commuter pollution exposure was investigated. An experimental investigation was carried out into the effect, on air pollution exposure, of maintaining a distance of approximately 2m to the preceding vehicle in idling traffic conditions compared to that of a vehicle maintaining a distance of approximately 1 m. VOCs and PM2.5 were measured experimentally and the resulting reduction in exposure was found to be between 25% and 33%. A calibrated computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model was then built using the experimental data which was then used to make predictions about car exposure under different conditions by varying certain key parameters, such as ventilation rate, wind speed and distance. The results of these experiments and predictions are presented herein.