§ 1065.140 Dilution for gaseous and PM constituents.

(a) General. You may dilute exhaust with ambient air, purified air, or nitrogen. References in this part to “dilution air” may include any of these. For gaseous emission measurement, the dilution air must be at least 15 °C. Note that the composition of the dilution air affects some gaseous emission measurement instruments' response to emissions. We recommend diluting exhaust at a location as close as possible to the location where ambient air dilution would occur in use. Dilution may occur in a single stage or in multiple stages. For dilution in multiple stages, the first stage is considered primary dilution and later stages are considered secondary dilution.

(b) Dilution-air conditions and background concentrations. Before dilution air is mixed with exhaust, you may precondition it by increasing or decreasing its temperature or humidity. You may also remove constituents to reduce their background concentrations. The following provisions apply to removing constituents or accounting for background concentrations:

(1) You may measure constituent concentrations in the dilution air and compensate for background effects on test results. See § 1065.650 for calculations that compensate for background concentrations (40 CFR 1066.610 for vehicle testing).

(2) Measure these background concentrations the same way you measure diluted exhaust constituents, or measure them in a way that does not affect your ability to demonstrate compliance with the applicable standards in this chapter. For example, you may use the following simplifications for background sampling:

(i) You may disregard any proportional sampling requirements.

(ii) You may use unheated gaseous sampling systems.

(iii) You may use unheated PM sampling systems.

(iv) You may use continuous sampling if you use batch sampling for diluted emissions.

(v) You may use batch sampling if you use continuous sampling for diluted emissions.

(3) For removing background PM, we recommend that you filter all dilution air, including primary full-flow dilution air, with high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filters that have an initial minimum collection efficiency specification of 99.97% (see § 1065.1001 for procedures related to HEPA-filtration efficiencies). Ensure that HEPA filters are installed properly so that background PM does not leak past the HEPA filters. If you choose to correct for background PM without using HEPA filtration, demonstrate that the background PM in the dilution air contributes less than 50% to the net PM collected on the sample filter. You may correct net PM without restriction if you use HEPA filtration.

(c) Full-flow dilution; constant-volume sampling (CVS). You may dilute the full flow of raw exhaust in a dilution tunnel that maintains a nominally constant volume flow rate, molar flow rate or mass flow rate of diluted exhaust, as follows:

(1) Construction. Use a tunnel with inside surfaces of 300 series stainless steel. Electrically ground the entire dilution tunnel. We recommend a thin-walled and insulated dilution tunnel to minimize temperature differences between the wall and the exhaust gases. You may not use any flexible tubing in the dilution tunnel upstream of the PM sample probe. You may use nonconductive flexible tubing downstream of the PM sample probe and upstream of the CVS flow meter; use good engineering judgment to select a tubing material that is not prone to leaks, and configure the tubing to ensure smooth flow at the CVS flow meter.