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Although the application of cylinder pressure sensors to gain insight into the combustion process is not a novel topic itself, the recent availability of inexpensive in-cylinder pressure sensors has again prompted an upcoming interest for the utilization of the cylinder pressure signal within engine control and monitoring. Besides the use of the in-cylinder pressure signal for combustion analysis and control the information can also be used to determine related quantities in the exhaust or intake manifold. Within this work two different methods to estimate the pressure inside the exhaust manifold are proposed and compared. In contrary to first principle based approaches, which may require time extensive parameterization, alternative data driven approaches were pursued. In the first method a Principle Component Analysis (PCA) is applied to extract the cylinder pressure information and combined with a polynomial model approach.

In a typical diesel engine exhaust aftertreatment system consisting of a diesel oxidation catalyst (DOC), a diesel particulate filter (DPF) and a selective catalytic reduction (SCR) system the main purpose of the DOC, besides the oxidation of CO to CO₂, is the oxidation of NO to NO₂. The NO to NO₂ conversion is an essential contribution for the downstream SCR system because the fast SCR reaction which provides the highest conversion rates of NOx to H₂O and N₂ works well only under roughly equal concentrations of NO and NO₂. The typical amount of NO to NOx ratio produced by the engine is about 0.95, hence the DOC is necessary to decrease this coefficient close to 0.50. Due to the temperature dependency of the DOC reaction mechanism the oxidation of NO to NO₂ takes only place sufficiently if the temperature of the DOC is higher than 200°C, which, however, cannot be reached during low engine speed and low load situations.

Although SCR is a well established technology for many applications, it is still a field in which several new approaches and components are being tested. Control is a critical issue, as the conflicting requirements of NOx abatement and very small NH3 slip need to be met. Besides empirical solutions, model based controls have been proposed and are probably the technology of choice, also in view of the combination with monitoring functions. However, SCR models are typically based on First Principles (FP), i.e. on global chemical equations and reaction rate equations, and require precise calibration. Still, their performance for the control of dynamic processes is limited, or a high detail, much a priori information, e.g. on the actual SCR reaction rates, are needed. Frequently, this information is not available or reliable, and this is particularly true when components are changed or modified during the development process, so that typically a re-design is needed.

The emissions of modern Diesel engines, which are known to have various health effects, are beside the drivers torque demands and low fuel consumptions one of the most challenging issues for combustion and after treatment control. To comply with legal requirements, emission control for heavy duty engines is not feasible without additional hardware, usually consisting of a Diesel oxidation catalyst (DOC), a Diesel particulate filter (DPF) and a selective catalytic reduction (SCR) system. In contrast to other NOx reduction systems, e.g. lean NOx traps, the SCR system requires an additional ingredient, namely ammonia (NH3), to reduce the NOx emissions to non harmful components. Consequently, the correct amount of NH3 dosing in the SCR catalyst is one of the critical components to reach high conversion rates and avoid ammonia slip.

The focus in the development of modern exhaust after treatment systems, like the Diesel Oxidation Catalyst (DOC), the Diesel Particulate Filter (DPF) and Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR), is to increase on one hand the oxidation rates of Carbon monoxide (CO), HC (Hydro Carbons) and NO (Nitrogen Oxide) and on the other hand the reduction rates of Particulate Matter (PM) and the NOx emissions to fulfill the more and more restricting requirements of the exhaust emission legislation. The simplest, practical most relevant way to obtain such a dosing strategy of a SCR system is the use of a nonlinear map, which has to be determined by extensive calibration efforts. This feedforward action has the advantage of not requiring a downstream NOx sensor and can achieve high conversion efficiency under steady-state operating conditions for nominal systems.