Method and arrangement for monitoring the emissions during operation of a supply vessel for supplying a volatile medium including a fuel supply tank of a motor vehicle

• US 20030037599A1
• Filed: 08/27/2002
• Published: 02/27/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 08/27/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Robert Bosch GmbH
• Original Assignee: Robert Bosch GmbH
• Inventors: Penschuck, Juergen, Dworzak, Uwe
• Granted Patent: US 6,829,555 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 73/49.2
• CPC Class Codes: F02M 25/0809 Judging failure of purge control system

Abstract

A method monitors the emissions of a supply vessel storing a volatile medium during operation including a fuel supply tank of a motor vehicle. A tightness check of the supply vessel is carried out from time-to-time. The temperature of the medium is determined based on at least one characteristic variable utilizing a model computation from time-to-time or cyclically. Either the temperature is utilized in the tightness check or the tightness check is carried out only when the determined temperature of the medium lies within a pregivable temperature interval.

Claims

1. A method for monitoring the emissions of a supply vessel storing a volatile medium during operation including a fuel supply tank of a motor vehicle, the method comprising the steps of:

carrying out a tightness check of the supply vessel from time-to-time;

determining the temperature of said medium based on at least one characteristic variable utilizing a model computation from time-to-time or cyclically; and

,

either utilizing said temperature in said tightness check or carrying out the tightness check only when the determined temperature of said medium lies within a pregivable temperature interval.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said characteristic variable is the ambient temperature.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein said supply vessel has a fill level and said fill level is used as an additional characteristic variable.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein said supply vessel is a fuel tank of a motor vehicle;

and, an operating variable of said motor vehicle is used as a further operating variable.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein an identifying data of the vehicle series is utilized as an additional operating variable.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein the shutoff duration of the motor vehicle is included in the model computation of the temperature of said medium;

and, a cool-down curve, which is specific for a manufactured series, is stored and is used as a start value for the engine temperature.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the temperature of said medium, which is modeled based on said at least one operating variable, is stored via said at least one characteristic variable in the form of a characteristic variable diagram.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the temperature of said medium is only determined from said at least one characteristic variable when said at least one characteristic variable lies within a pregivable variance width.

9. The method of claim 4, wherein the temperature of said medium is only determined when the vehicle speed and/or the duration of operation of the vehicle motor exceeds a pregivable limit value.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein said limit value is fixed in dependence upon the manufacturing series of the vehicle motor and/or of the chassis form of the vehicle including for individual vehicle manufacturing series separately.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein a temperature value of said medium, which is determined in the operation of said supply vessel and/or of the vehicle, is intermediately stored and, when the supply vessel is subsequently used and/or the vehicle is used, is compared to a measured instantaneous ambient temperature, and, until a subsequent determination of the temperature of the medium based on the model computation, the larger of the two values is applied as a start value for the temperature of the medium.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein a change of the fill level of the supply vessel is detected based on a tanking operation and is considered in the model computation.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the tanking operation is detected in that, after the start of the vehicle engine, the difference between the instantaneous fill level of the tank and an intermediately stored tank fill level value exceeds a pregivable threshold value.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the quantity of the after-tanked medium is included in the model computation when there is a new computation of the temperature of the medium.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein, in the case of a detected defect of a temperature sensor or fill level sensor, a pregivable substitute value is assigned to a corresponding temperature variable in the model equation or an instantaneously determined temperature value of the medium is replaced by a stored temperature value.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein a plausibility check is carried out wherein an instantaneously present temperature value of said medium is compared to a pregivable upper and/or lower limit value and is only accepted when the temperature value lies within these limit values.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the temperature value is set equal to one of said limit values when one of said limit values is exceeded.

18. A method for determining the temperature of a volatile medium stored in a supply vessel including the temperature of a fuel stored in a fuel supply tank of a motor vehicle, the method comprising the step of utilizing a model computation to determine the temperature of said medium based on at least one characteristic variable.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein said characteristic variable is the ambient temperature.

20. A circuit comprising circuit means for carrying out a method for monitoring the emissions of a supply vessel storing a volatile medium during operation including a fuel supply tank of a motor vehicle, the method comprising the steps of:

carrying out a tightness check of the supply vessel;

determining the temperature of said medium based on at least one characteristic variable utilizing a model computation from time-to-time or cyclically; and

,

either utilizing said temperature in said tightness check or carrying out the tightness check only when the determined temperature of said medium lies within a pregivable temperature interval.

21. The circuit of claim 20, wherein said circuit is a binary logic circuit.

22. The circuit of claim 20, comprising first and second stages wherein each stage defines a filter for the influence of the particular characteristic variable on the temperature of the medium;

and, the attenuation of the particular filter is varied in dependence upon the characteristic variable and a corrective quantity dependent upon the ambient.

23. The circuit of claim 22, wherein at least two filters form the basis of the model computation;

the ambient temperature and/or the elevation of the supply vessel or of the vehicle are included in the first filter;

the fill level of the supply vessel and/or the vehicle shutoff time and/or the vehicle shutoff time and/or the vehicle motor shutoff time and/or the operating duration of the supply vessel or of the vehicle are included in the second filter.

24. A control apparatus comprising a control program for carrying out a method for monitoring the emissions of a supply vessel storing a volatile medium during operation including a fuel supply tank of a motor vehicle, the method comprising the steps of:

carrying out a tightness check of the supply vessel;

determining the temperature of said medium based on at least one characteristic variable utilizing a model computation from time-to-time or cyclically; and

,

either utilizing said temperature in said tightness check or carrying out the tightness check only when the determined temperature of said medium lies within a pregivable temperature interval.

25. The control apparatus of claim 24, further comprising a read/write memory (RAM) for storing the one characteristic variable diagram and/or for intermediately storing a determined temperature value of said medium.