Control of Oxygen for Thermal Management of Diesel Particulate Filters 2002-01-0427

A control strategy is presented to limit the rate of heat release by Diesel Particulate Filters (DPF) during regeneration reactions between oxygen and the collected soot. Heat release is managed by limiting the oxygen supplied to the DPF, which limits the rate of the regeneration reaction. Three actuators are used to control the amount of oxygen flowing in the exhaust system: an exhaust gas re-circulation (EGR) valve, an intake throttle (ITH), and a hydrocarbon injector located upstream of the DPF in the exhaust system. The EGR valve and ITH are low-bandwidth actuators that control slowly varying changes in oxygen flow, while the hydrocarbon injector is a high-bandwidth actuator that controls the corresponding fast changes in oxygen flow.