Korean institute claims tire-wear measurement advance

Seoul – The Korea Institute of Machinery and Materials (KIMM) is claiming a world first in the measurement of non-exhaust – tire and brake wear, road wear and road dust – emissions from internal combustion engine (ICE) and electric vehicles.

In an 11 Oct release, KIMM announced that it had successfully measured total particulate matter (PM) emissions according to vehicle type and sources through integrated experimental measurement.

The research team measured PM emissions for compact SUVs using an in-house developed tire wear simulator, brake wear simulator, and a mobile road dust measurement vehicle.

Results from the measurement of PM10 emissions were: 42.3mg/km for petrol vehicles, 43.2mg/km for diesel vehicles, and 47.7mg/km for electric vehicles.

Meanwhile, PM2.5 emissions were recorded as: 14.5mg/km for petrol vehicles, 14.1mg/km for diesel vehicles, and 13.9mg/km for EVs.

The results, it stated, will be used to identify the cause of the non-exhaust emissions from ICE vehicles and electric vehicles (EVs) and to develop guidelines for government policies to mitigate traffic-related PM emissions.

The experiment measured PM emissions according to the powertrain type for compact SUVs using an in-house developed simultation devices.

In case of the latest ICE vehicles, engine combustion and after-treatment technologies have evolved considerably to reduce PM emissions.

As a consequence, the proportion of non-exhaust PM in the total PM emissions to more than 90%, noted research leader Dr. Seokhwan Lee.

But, he added, while EVs do not emit toxic exhaust gases and greenhouse gases, they do emit a significant amount of non-exhaust emissions.

“To improve urban air quality, the government should… implement various policies to mitigate non-exhaust emissions, rather than only focusing uptake of the electric vehicles,” advised Lee.

KIMM is a non-profit government-funded research institute under the Korean ministry of science and ICT.