Apparatus, system, and method for aftertreatment control and diagnostics

• US 9,194,273 B2
• Filed: 07/03/2012
• Issued: 11/24/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 10/31/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cummins Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Cummins Incorporated
• Inventors: Janssen, John M., Lindner, Frederick H., Schneider, Matthew L.
• Primary Examiner(s): Bradley, Audrey K
• Assistant Examiner(s): Singh, Dapinder
• Application Number:
  US13/541,137
• Publication Number:
  US 20140007559A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,239 Days
• Field of Search: 602/86, 602/95, 602/74, 602/77, 603/01, 603/24
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: F01N 11/00 Monitoring or diagnostic devices for exhaust-gas treatment apparatus , e.g. for catalytic activity safety, indicating or supervising devices for internal combustion engines F02B77/08; testing of machines G01M13/00
• CPC Class Codes: F01N 13/008 Mounting or arrangement of exhaust sensors in or on exhaust apparatus sensor arrangements for engine control F02D41/1439
• CPC Class Codes: F01N 13/009 having two or more separate purifying devices arranged in series
• CPC Class Codes: F01N 2250/02 filtering and catalytic conversion
• CPC Class Codes: F01N 2550/00 Monitoring or diagnosing the deterioration of exhaust systems
• CPC Class Codes: F01N 2550/02 Catalytic activity of catalytic converters
• CPC Class Codes: F01N 2550/03 of sorbing activity of adsorbents or absorbents
• CPC Class Codes: F01N 2550/04 Filtering activity of particulate filters
• CPC Class Codes: F01N 2550/05 Systems for adding substances into exhaust
• CPC Class Codes: F01N 2560/02 the means being an exhaust gas sensor
• CPC Class Codes: F01N 2560/021 for measuring or detecting ammonia NH3
• CPC Class Codes: F01N 2560/05 the means being a particulate sensor
• CPC Class Codes: F01N 2560/14 having more than one sensor of one kind
• CPC Class Codes: F01N 2610/02 the substance being ammonia or urea
• CPC Class Codes: F01N 2900/0416 using the state of a sensor, e.g. of an exhaust gas sensor
• CPC Class Codes: F01N 2900/1402 Exhaust gas composition
• CPC Class Codes: F01N 2900/1821 Injector parameters
• CPC Class Codes: F01N 3/035 with catalytic reactors , e.g. catalysed diesel particulate filters
• CPC Class Codes: F01N 3/0814 combined with catalytic converters, e.g. NOx absorption/storage reduction catalysts
• CPC Class Codes: F01N 3/106 Auxiliary oxidation catalysts
• CPC Class Codes: F01N 3/206 : Adding periodically or continuously substances to exhaust gases for promoting purification, e.g. catalytic material in liquid form, NOx reducing agents F01N3/2066 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: F01N 3/2066 : Selective catalytic reduction [SCR]
• CPC Class Codes: F01N 9/005 : using models instead of sensors to determine operating characteristics of exhaust systems, e.g. calculating catalyst temperature instead of measuring it directly
• CPC Class Codes: G01M 15/10 : by monitoring exhaust gases or combustion flame
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 10/40 : Engine management systems

Abstract

A method includes providing an exhaust stream for an internal combustion engine, where the exhaust stream is fluidly coupled to an aftertreatment component. The method includes optically determining an amount of an exhaust gas constituent in the exhaust stream. The method further includes modifying a model stored on a computer readable medium in response to the amount of the exhaust gas constituent. The model is an engine NO_x generation model, a catalyst NO_x storage model, a catalyst NO_x conversion model, a catalyst NO to NO₂ conversion model, a catalyst conversion efficiency model, an engine soot generation model, and/or a urea hydrolysis model.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

providing an exhaust stream for an internal combustion engine, the exhaust stream fluidly coupled to an aftertreatment component;

optically determining an amount of exhaust gas constituents in the exhaust stream during the operation of the internal combustion engine, the exhaust gas constituents comprising urea, NO, NO₂ and soot;

diagnosing the aftertreatment component in response to the amount of the exhaust gas constituents; and

wherein diagnosing the aftertreatment component comprises;

determining that a soot filter has failed in response to the optically determined amount of soot; and

determining a catalyst NO to NO₂ conversion effectiveness of an oxidation catalyst in response to the optically determined amount of NO and NO₂.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the exhaust gas constituents further comprise NO_x, and wherein diagnosing the aftertreatment component comprises determining a catalyst effectiveness.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein diagnosing the aftertreatment component further comprises determining a urea injector compliance.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein diagnosing the aftertreatment component further comprises diagnosing an injected urea composition.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the diagnosing the aftertreatment component further comprises diagnosing a composition sensor.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining a size of the soot.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein diagnosing the aftertreatment component comprises determining that the soot filter has failed in response to the size of the soot exceeding a threshold value.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining the exhaust gas constituents at a plurality of spatially divided portions along the exhaust stream and a plurality of radially divided portions around the exhaust stream.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein diagnosing the aftertreatment component comprises diagnosing at least one condition selected from the conditions consisting of:

urea accumulation, urea mal-distribution, a urea injector failure, and a urea hydrolysis failure.

10. An apparatus, comprising:

a number of optical sensors structured to determine an amount of an exhaust gas constituent in an exhaust stream of an internal combustion engine during the operation of the internal combustion engine, wherein the number of optical sensors are spatially distributed along the exhaust stream to detect the amount of the exhaust gas constituent along the exhaust stream, the exhaust gas constituent comprising an amount of urea; and

a controller including a computer processor and a computer readable memory including computer readable code, wherein when the computer readable code is executed by the computer processor it causes the controller to;

determine an aftertreatment component diagnosis in response to the amount of urea along the exhaust stream; and

modify a urea hydrolysis model to adjust an engine operating parameter in response to the aftertreatment component diagnosis,

wherein the aftertreatment component diagnosis comprises at least one of a urea accumulation condition, a urea mal-distribution condition, a urea injector failure condition, and a urea hydrolysis failure condition.

11. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the controller is further structured to diagnose an injected urea composition in response to the exhaust gas constituent.

12. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the number of optical sensors are further positioned to sense radially divided portions of the exhaust stream.

13. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the number of optical sensors includes at least three optical sensors radially distributed about the exhaust stream.

14. An apparatus, comprising:

an optical sensor structured to determine an amount of an exhaust gas constituent in an exhaust stream of an internal combustion engine during the operation of the internal combustion engine, the exhaust gas constituent comprising an amount of ammonia and an amount of NO_x; and

a controller including a computer processor and a computer readable memory including computer readable code, wherein when the computer readable code is executed by the computer processor it causes the controller to;

determine a component performance description in response to the amount of the exhaust gas constituent determined by the optical sensor, wherein the component performance description includes an ammonia;

NO_x ratio; and

modify at least one of a catalyst NO_x storage model and a catalyst NO_x conversion model of a NO_x conversion catalyst in response to an actual NOx storage rate based on the amount of NO_x determined by the optical sensor and the ammonia;

NO_x ratio to adjust an engine operating parameter in response to the component performance description,

and wherein the engine operating parameter comprises a urea injection rate.

15. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the optical sensor includes a number of optical sensors radially distributed around the exhaust stream to sense radially divided portions of the exhaust stream and axially distributed along the exhaust stream to sense axially divided portions of the exhaust stream.