Mathematical Modeling of Vehicular Carbon Emissions

Presenter Information

Evan Vidden, Minnesota State University, Mankato
Jin-ho Yun, Minnesota State University, Mankato

Location

CSU 284A

Start Date

5-4-2011 9:00 AM

End Date

5-4-2011 10:30 AM

Student's Major

Mathematics and Statistics, Biological Sciences

Student's College

Science, Engineering and Technology

Mentor's Name

Namyong Lee

Mentor's Department

Mathematics and Statistics

Mentor's College

Science, Engineering and Technology

Description

Carbon emissions are contributors to worldwide climate changes, with a large producer of these emissions being automobiles. Modeling emission rates caused by vehicles at certain gas price levels showed that higher gas prices will lead to an increase in the use and number of smaller vehicles (passenger cars) and a decrease in the use and number of larger vehicles (light trucks and SUVs). Using reference data from government agencies for time periods between 1994 and 2008, the effects of gas prices on emissions produced by cars each year are modeled. Various modeling techniques were used to analyze the reference data, adjust model parameters to fit trends observed in the reference data, and predict possible future scenarios. We built mathematical models to simulate the dynamics of the project using various software programs such as pplane, matlab, and mathematica.