Engine system with inferential sensor

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2020003142-A1
Application number	US-201916566013-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Sep 10, 2019
Priority date	Jan 29, 2016
Publication date	Jan 2, 2020
Grant date	—

Abstract

An engine system incorporating an engine, one or more sensors, and a controller. The controller may be connected to the one or more sensors and the engine. The one or more sensors may be configured to sense one or more parameters related to operation of the engine. The controller may incorporate an air-path state estimator configured to estimate one or more air-path state parameters in the engine based on values of one or more parameters sensed by the sensors. The controller may have an on-line and an off-line portion, where the on-line portion may incorporate the air-path state estimator and the off-line portion may configure and/or calibrate a model for the air-path state estimator.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . An engine system comprising:
an engine; one or more sensors each configured to sense one or more parameters related to operation of the engine; and a controller in communication with the engine and the one or more sensors, the controller comprises a first virtual sensor and a second virtual sensor; and wherein: the first virtual sensor is configured such that during operation of the engine the first virtual sensor determines one or more initial conditions for the second virtual sensor based at least in part on values of the one or more parameters sensed by the one or more sensors; the second virtual sensor is configured such that during operation of the engine, the second virtual sensor determines values for one or more output parameters of the engine; and the controller is configured to send control signals to the engine to control operation of the engine, the controller is configured to determine the control signals based, at least in part, on the values for one or more output parameters of the engine determined by the second virtual sensor.

2 . The engine system of claim 1 , wherein the first virtual sensor solves a differential algebraic equation to determine the one or more initial conditions for the second virtual sensor.

3 . The engine system of claim 1 , wherein the second virtual sensor solves a differential algebraic equation to determine the values for one or more output parameters of the engine.

4 . The engine system of claim 1 , wherein the first virtual sensor incorporates an air-path state estimator configured to estimate one or more of an intake manifold temperature of the engine, intake manifold pressure of the engine, exhaust manifold pressure of the engine, an amount of fuel per stroke of the engine, intake manifold gas composition of the engine, in-cylinder charge mass, in-cylinder charge temperature, in-cylinder charge pressure, in-cylinder charge composition, residual mass temperature, and residual mass composition.

5 . The engine system of claim 1 , wherein the second virtual sensor incorporates a NOx concentration module.

6 . The engine system of claim 1 , wherein:
the first virtual sensor incorporates an air-path state estimator; and the second virtual sensor incorporates a NOx concentration module.

7 . The engine system of claim 1 , wherein the controller comprises:
an off-line portion; and an on-line portion configured to incorporate the first virtual sensor and the second virtual sensor; and wherein the off-line portion is configured to determine one or more differential equations for one of the first virtual sensor and the second virtual sensor.

8 . The engine system of claim 7 , wherein the controller comprises a plurality of control units and a first control unit of the plurality of control units incorporates the off-line portion and a second control unit of the plurality of control units that incorporates the on-line portion and is in communication with the first control unit.

9 . The engine system of claim 7 , wherein:
the first virtual sensor and the second virtual sensor are configured to estimate one or more parameters related to the operation of the engine; and the off-line portion of the controller is configured to derive an ordinary differential equation (ODE) model of the one or more parameters estimated by one or both of the first virtual sensor and the second virtual sensor into a differential algebraic equation (DAE) model of the one or more parameters estimated by one or both of the first virtual sensor and the second virtual sensor.

10 . The engine system of claim 1 , further comprising:
one or more turbochargers; and wherein the first virtual sensor solves one or more of the following: a differential equation of pressure between components in a volume of the engine; a differential equation of temperature between components of the engine; a differential equation of a mass fraction of a gas species in the engine; and a differential equation of a turbocharger speed of one or more turbochargers.

11 . A method of controlling operation of an engine system, the method comprising:
receiving values of one or more sensed parameters from a physical sensor, the one or more sensed parameters are related to an operation of an engine; using a first differential algebraic equation to calculate one or more initial conditions of an in-cylinder gas based, at least in part, on the values of one or more sensed parameters received from the physical sensor; using a second differential algebraic equation to calculate one or more values of a parameter output from the engine based, at least in part on the one or more initial conditions of the in-cylinder gas; determining one or more control signals to control operation of the engine, the one or more control signals are determined based, at least in part on, the one or more values of a parameter output from the engine that are calculated; and sending the one or more control signals to the engine.

12 . The method of claim 11 , wherein the sending the one or more control signals includes sending control signals to an on-board diagnostics system configured to monitor operation of the engine.

13 . The method of claim 11 , wherein the one or more initial conditions of the in-cylinder gas incorporate one or more of an intake manifold pressure of the engine, an intake manifold temperature of the engine, an exhaust manifold pressure of the engine, an amount of fuel per stroke of the engine, one or more gas compositions in an intake manifold of the engine, in-cylinder charge mass, in-cylinder charge temperature, in-cylinder charge pressure, in-cylinder charge compositions, residual mass temperatures, and residual mass compositions.

14 . The method of claim 11 , wherein the first differential algebraic equation and the second differential algebraic equation are configured in an off-line portion of a controller of the engine system.

15 . The method of claim 14 , wherein in the off-line portion of the controller:
the first differential algebraic equation is determined by converting a first ordinary differential equation configured to model engine parameter values to a same or lower number of differential equations including the first differential algebraic equation; and the second differential algebraic equation is determined by converting a second ordinary differential equation configured to model engine parameter values to a same or lower number of differential equations including the second differential algebraic equation.

16 . The method of claim 11 , wherein using the first differential algebraic equation to calculate one or more initial conditions of an in-cylinder gas includes solving one or more of the following:
a differential equation of pressure between components in a volume of the engine; a differential equation of temperature between components of the engine; a differential equation of a mass fraction of a gas species in the engine; and a differential equation of a turbocharger speed of one or more turbochargers of the engine system.

17 . An engine control unit configured to control operation of an engine, the engine control unit comprising:
a processor; and memory in communication with the processor and configured to store software code configured to be compiled and executed by the processor to:
calculate values of a temperature, a composition, and a mass of a charged gas of the engine based, at least in part, on values of one or more sensed parameters received from a physical sensor during operation of th

Assignees

• Garrett Transportation I Inc

Inventors

• Pachner Daniel
• Kihas Dejan
• Baramov Lubomir

Classifications

• F02D2200/0408

  Estimation of intake manifold pressure · CPC title

• F02D41/145

  with determination means using an estimation · CPC title

• F02D35/026

  using an estimation · CPC title

• F02D41/26

  using computer, e.g. microprocessor · CPC title

• F02D2041/1436

  Hybrid model · CPC title