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When exhaust emissions from a vehicle are measured, a flow rate is needed in addition to pollutant concentrations in order to calculate the mass emitted. The highly unsteady flow from an internal combustion engine presents measurement challenges to exhaust flowmeters, especially at idle. Mass measurement methods used in the past have gotten around this problem by a variable dilution scheme (CVS) that measures a different, more favorable flow, but reduces and can contaminate exhaust gas concentration levels. The flow measurement system described here makes possible a more accurate measure of the vehicle exhaust flow by means of a number of design features. This improves considerably the cost effectiveness and accuracy of emissions measurement techniques such as the Bag-Minidiluter sampling system and raw modal analysis.

The traditional method for sampling vehicle exhaust has been the constant volume sampler (CVS) technique as described in the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR). This method dilutes the entire exhaust output from the vehicle, meters the mixture, and takes a proportional sample for measurement. The Mini-diluter sampling method reverses this process by first metering a small sample and then diluting to a fixed dilution ratio. This approach offers new opportunities to improve the quality of the sample measurement. This is especially interesting considering the lower emissions levels from ULEVs. The usefulness of this idea will depend on the development of stable and repeatable devices to implement it. This paper describes the operation of and presents results from a Mini-dilution system that uses critical flow venturis to provide a stable and repeatable dilution.