Airborne Particles Emission and Generation Mechanisms of Brakes and Engine

A special issue of Atmosphere (ISSN 2073-4433). This special issue belongs to the section "Air Pollution Control".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 January 2026) | Viewed by 1068

Special Issue Editor

College of Transportation, Shandong University of Science and Technology, Qingdao 266590, China
Interests: brake wear particle emissions; particle formation mechanism; vehicle brake system; vehicle engine emissions
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Particulate matter (PM) in the atmosphere is one of the five main risks for human health. Vehicular emissions have been recognized as a significant contributor of PM in cities. Sources of vehicular PM emissions are classified as exhaust and non-exhaust sources. Exhaust particles are generated from the incomplete fuel combustion and volatilization of lubricating oil. Non-exhaust particles are generated from brake wear, tire wear, and road surface wear. Due to the increasingly strict emission regulations, the contributions of non-exhaust particle emissions to the total traffic-related particle emissions will increase further in the future.  It has been reported that the non-exhaust particle emissions are almost equal to the exhaust particle emissions. Thus, it is important to investigate the emission and generation mechanism of brake wear particles and engine combustion particles,  including the physicochemical characteristics of particles, emission factors, adverse health effects of brake wear particles, and engine emission particles. Both experimental and simulation studies of this topic are welcome. 

Dr. Long Wei
Guest Editor

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Keywords

  • exhaust particles
  • brake wear particles
  • disc brakes
  • internal combustion engines
  • traffic related particle emissions

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

18 pages, 2950 KB  
Article
Brake Particle PN and PM Emissions of Battery Electric Vehicles (BEVs): On-Vehicle Chassis Dynamometer Measurements
by Panayotis Dimopoulos Eggenschwiler, Daniel Schreiber and Nora Schüller
Atmosphere 2026, 17(1), 59; https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos17010059 - 31 Dec 2025
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 787
Abstract
Currently, brake particle emissions from traffic are considered one of the dominant sources of particulate matter in the atmosphere. A recent question concerns the contribution to brake particles of Battery Electric Vehicles (BEVs). The present work assesses brake particle emissions by measurements of [...] Read more.
Currently, brake particle emissions from traffic are considered one of the dominant sources of particulate matter in the atmosphere. A recent question concerns the contribution to brake particles of Battery Electric Vehicles (BEVs). The present work assesses brake particle emissions by measurements of particle number (PN) and mass (PM) of three light-duty BEVs. One front disc brake of each vehicle has been enclosed in a customized casing with appropriate ventilation for forming the aerosol. All three BEVs have been measured on a two-axis chassis dynamometer. The BEV relying more on electric braking (some 68% of the braking energy was covered by electric braking) had the lowest brake PN emissions over the (emissions) WLTC at 6.4 × 109 km−1 per front brake. This was less than half with respect to the other BEV (where only 52% of the braking energy was electric). PM emissions of the two vehicles were similar at 0.93 mg/km for PM < 12 μm and 0.65 mg/km for PM < 2.5 μm, both for one front brake. However, one of the measured BEVs had extraordinarily high PN emissions, some 23 times higher than the lowest-emitting BEV. The difference in PM was not as high, but was some four times higher. Full article
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