This paper presents a proposed methodology developed during a research project at CENPES - PETROBRAS Research Center, to simulate a typical urban traffic cycle in the city of São Paulo on a chassis dynamometer. This cycle can be used in pollutant gas emission tests for light duty vehicles in laboratories.
The implementation of a representative city cycle in a laboratory allows its simulation under controlled conditions. It can be applied, for example, in emission inventories and the impact of air quality in public health studies, without the need for on-board emissions measurement equipment for field use. This kind of equipment is generally expensive and the repeatability for the same cycle can be difficult to achieve, mainly due to traffic variants such as the day of the week, time, and weather conditions.
To implement driving cycle characteristics on a chassis dynamometer, it is necessary to know the speed and the specific gear shift tables for each vehicle model used during the time on the route.
A comparison is also presented of the results obtained in the CENPES' Vehicle Test Laboratory (LEV), between the EPA FTP-75 cycle and the new cycle proposed for the city of São Paulo.