Uncertainty of PM₁₀ concentration measurement on the example of an optical measuring device

¹ Gdynia Maritime University, Faculty of Entrepreneurship and Quality Science, 83 Morska St., 81-225 Gdynia, Poland
² Warsaw University of Technology, Faculty of Building Services, Hydro and Environmental Engineering, 20 Nowowiejska St., 00-653 Warsaw, Poland

^* Corresponding author: t.owczarek@wpit.umg.edu.pl

Abstract

The interest in the natural environment, in particular the ambient air, has been growing. For this reason, growing interest in measuring of concentration of pollutants in the air. To the reduction of costs and time of obtained results, increasingly are used non-reference, alternative methods and devices. However, it is necessary to ensure equivalence of results obtained by alternative methods with the results of the reference method.

One of the equivalence issues is the assessment of the measurements uncertainty of the alternative method in relation to the reference method. This uncertainty is understood as the probability of obtaining a measurement result which differs from the real (reference) result by a predetermined value. Uncertainty can be caused by many reasons: imperfect implementation of the definition of the measurand, incomplete knowledge of the influence of external factors, heterogeneity of the analyzed phenomenon, errors of the measuring device and others. The paper presents methods for testing the uncertainty of measurements used in the study of equivalence and also proposed extending the test procedure with equivalence models, different from the linear regression models.