The influence of inter-vehicle spacing on the in-vehicle air pollution exposure of car commuters in heavy traffic conditions was investigated, bothexperimentally and numerically. An experimental investigation was carriedout into the effect, on in-vehicle air pollution exposure, of maintaininga distance of approximately 2 m to the preceding vehicle in congested idling traffic conditions compared to that of an identical vehicle maintaining a distance of approximately 1 m. In-vehicle VOC and PM2.5 concentrationsrevealed that a 19û31% reduction in exposure at the larger inter-vehicle spacing. A computational fluid dynamics model was calibrated using the experimental data and used to prediction car exposure under different conditions by varying certain key parameters. Agreement between the experimental and predicted data of 82% was achieved. The results show a significant drop in pollutant concentrations occurred within the first 2 m of their emission from the preceding vehicles exhaust. (A) Reprinted with permission from Elsevier.
Abstract