The COVID-19 pandemic has driven consumers to be extremely vigilant towards personal as well as shared hygiene necessitating use of facemask, maintaining social distancing, frequent hand wash and vehicle sanitization. Humans are exposed to pollutants such as Particulate Matter (PM), SOx, NOx, CO, O3, Total Volatile Organic Compound (TVOC) and Pathogens (FBV- fungi, bacteria, viruses) either through air or by direct contact with contaminated surfaces. In a vehicle cabin, occupants are exposed to both, recirculating air through air-conditioning system and contact with touch points such as seats, steering wheel and armrest which may be contaminated.
In order to safeguard the occupants, VIAQ enhancers like high efficiency cabin air filters (N95/ HEPA) with activated carbon/ anti-allergen/ anti-microbial layers, ionizers and anti-bacterial trims are being deployed by OEMs. In many cases, validation of these VIAQ enhancers is done on a bench setup. Once VIAQ enhancer is integrated into the vehicle architecture, a series of additional subjective and objective validations will need to be carried out, which is the topic of this study.
This paper proposes novel two step approach consisting of subjective and objective assessments on the vehicle. The subjective assessment comprises calibration of human noses as per EN 13275 standard, training the calibrated noses for identification of odor character (OC), quantifying odor intensity (OI) and its hedonic tone (HT) as per VDI 3882. Whereas, the objective assessment comprises of use of handheld equipment for sampling and measurement of pollutants such as Particulate Matter, SOx, NOx, CO, O3 and TVOC. With the above novel approach, effectiveness of VIAQ enhancers can be assessed prior to its deployment on future vehicle programs for real world application. Adopting this approach will ensure the vehicle cabin is maintained within permissible limits for measurable parameters (PM, SOx, NOx, CO, O3, TVOC, FBV) and subjectively perceived odor (OC, OI and HT)