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Very stringent limits for exhaust gas emissions as well as high claims for onboard diagnosis (OBD) of the three-way catalytic converter (TWC) demand a sophisticated control and observer strategy which can both further reduce the exhaust gas emissions and also estimate the relevant parameters allowing to monitor the decreasing performance of the TWC over its lifetime. The most crucial parameter and state, respectively, are widely believed to be the oxygen storage capacity (OSC) and the relative oxygen level (ROL) of the TWC. The TWC's performance decreases with a diminishing OSC. Therefore, an accurate estimation of the OSC can be used for OBD. Keeping the ROL at an optimal level by means of control enhances the TWC's performance significantly, even during transients of the air/fuel ratio imposed by the driver. In order to monitor both the ROL and the OSC, an observer has been derived from a complex TWC model.

The goal of the Clean Engine Vehicle project (CEV) was the conversion of a gasoline engine to dedicated natural gas operation in order to achieve a significant reduction in CO2 emissions. The targeted reduction was 30% compared with a gasoline vehicle with similar performance. Along with the reduction in emissions, the second major requirement of the project, however, was compliance of the results with Euro-4 and SULEV emission limits. The project entailed modifications to the engine and the pre-existing model-based engine control system, the introduction of an enhanced catalytic converter and downsizing and turbocharging of the engine. As required by the initiators of the project, all components used were commonly available, some of them just being optimized or modified for natural gas operation.

Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) engines have become a promising alternative to classical IC engines because of low pollutant and carbon dioxide emissions. This paper will first briefly summarize these advantages and then concentrate on the modeling and the control of CNG engines. In the modeling part, it will be shown which effects are similar to those observed in gasoline SI engines and what new sub-models are necessary. In the control part, the problem of sudden A/F ratio changes (for instance during the regeneration of NOx trap catalysts) will be considered. In order to avoid excessive NOx engine-out emission in these transients it is important to switch from lean to rich conditions within very few combustion cycles while keeping the engine torque constant (for comfort reasons). The paper presents a model of the most important phenomena associated with those transients and a feedforward control that meets the mentioned requirements.

An advanced controller for a urea SCR (Selective Catalytic Reduction) catalytic converter system for a mobile heavy-duty diesel engine is presented. The after-treatment system is composed of the injecting device for urea solution and a single SCR catalytic converter. The control strategy consists of three parts: A primary feedforward controller, a surface coverage observer, and a feedback controller. A nitrogen oxide (NOx) gas sensor with non-negligible cross-sensitivity to ammonia (NH3) is used for a good feedback control performance. The control strategy is validated with ESC and ETC cycles: While the average NH3 slip is kept below 10 ppm, the emission of NOx is reduced by 82%.

In practical applications of ammonia SCR aftertreatment systems using urea as the reductant storage compound, one major difficulty is the often constrained packaging envelope. As a consequence, complete mixing of the urea solution into the exhaust gas stream as well as uniform flow and reductant distribution profiles across the catalyst inlet face are difficult to achieve. This paper discusses a modeling approach, where a combination of 3D CFD and a lumped parameter SCR model enables the prediction of system performance, even with non-uniform exhaust flow and ammonia distribution profiles. From the urea injection nozzle to SCR catalyst exit, each step in the modeling process is described and validated individually. Finally the modeling approach was applied to a design study where the performance of a range of urea-exhaust gas mixing sections was evaluated.

Instantaneous in-cylinder pressure, a key variable in the improvement of engine performance and reduction of emissions, is not likely to be measured directly in production type engines in the near future. As a countermeasure, a pressure estimation method based on physical first principles for the estimation of the instantaneous in-cylinder pressure of an SI engine using measured crankshaft angular velocity is presented here. The approach consists of (a) mapping the model parameters at nominal operating conditions and (b) adapting the model parameters to current operating conditions using the instantaneous crankshaft angular velocity. The model reflects all essential effects on in-cylinder pressure, while the simulation time was reduced to 6 milliseconds per cycle on a standard PC. This makes it possible to estimate a cylinder-averaged pressure for each cycle up to an engine speed of more than 6000 rpm. The estimated in-cylinder pressure is available with a delay of one engine cycle.