Keziah Hill

Document Type

Thesis

Date of Award

5-19-2014

School/College

College of Science, Engineering, and Technology (COSET)

Degree Name

Doctor of Education

First Advisor

Fengxiang Qiao

Abstract

Restaurants today have been the leading causes of obesity in America. Despite the fact that a lot of restaurants serve unhealthy food, customers become even lazier by having the ability to drive through to pick up food without the need to leave their vehicles. Statistics show that 64 percent of people in America are overweight. In today's society, there are many families where both parents work eight hour shifts, five days week and do not have time to prepare meals, so they go to fast food restaurants. As a result, fast food restaurants have become increasingly growing franchises. Majorities of fast food restaurants have drive-through lanes where customers stay inside their vehicles, place their orders and receive their food in a matter of minutes. Customers do not consider that while they are sitting in their cars waiting on their food, the vehicles left idling in the front ofthem and behind them are releasing emissions that can affect their health. The purpose of this thesis is to measure vehicle emissions generated at fast food restaurants with different drive-through configurations. Using the Portable Emission Measuring System (PEMS) and Global Positioning System (GPS) in the tests, the second by second data were collected. Vehicle Specific Power (VSP) was calculated each second using the instantaneous speed and acceleration. With the VSP and speed, the Operating Mode ID was determined by the operating mode bins according to the standard provided by Motor Vehic1e 2 Emissions Simulator (MOVES). The emission factors that are analyzed in this study are carbon monoxide (CO), carbon dioxide (C02), oxides of nitrogen (NOx), and hydrocarbons (HC). The emission rates were calculated using the emission rate from MOVES combined with the Operating Mode ID and VSP category. In this study for the PEMS data collection, Chick-fil-A restaurants were chosen with three different configurations: one lane two stops, two lanes two stops, and one lane three stops. For the GPS data collection, three restaurants were chosen: Chick-fil-A, McDonalds, and Jack in the Box with the same configurations; one lane two stops, two lanes two stops, and one lane three stops . The information gathered will be used to compare and determine which drive-through configuration produces the least amount of emission

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