Effect of engine load on diesel soot particles

This study concentrates on characterization of nonvolatile fraction of diesel particles. These particles have an impact on earth's radiation balance as well as on health effects of vehicle emissions. In addition to composition and size distribution of particles, an important factor affecting their health effects and properties and lifetimes in the atmosphere is their morphology. The effect of engine parameters on soot particle size distributions and also on particle morphology has been studied. It was found that the shape of the size distribution and also the structure of diesel particles depend on engine load. The number distributions were found to obey log-normal assumption. The width of the distribution increased with increasing engine load. The geometric standard deviations of measured distributions varied from 1.7 to 2.1. Simultaneously, the fractal dimension of particles decreased with increasing engine load. The values for mass fractal dimensions based on scaling of particle mass and mobility size were between 2.6 and 2.8. Both electron microscopy and measurements of aerodynamic size versus mobility size suggest that the morphology of particles in different size regimes vary, with the large particles being less compact than the small ones.