Patent ID: 11873745
Assignee: VITESCO TECHNOLOGIES GMBH
Field: Environmental technology (Chemistry)
Classification: CPC F  Y | IPC F

Claim 6:
7. A device for determining an icing condition of a sensor of an exhaust-gas system of a motor vehicle that is not arranged directly in an exhaust-gas mass flow, and/or of a feed line of said component, the device comprising: an engine control unit configured to control a method, the method comprising:
determining a water quantity actually present in the sensor and in the feed line thereof and a state of aggregation of the water quantity;
determining an energy quantity required for deicing and for volatilizing the water quantity actually present in the sensor and in the feed line thereof;
determining an energy quantity supplied for deicing and for volatilizing the water quantity actually present in the sensor and in the feed line thereof by radiated heat from components arranged directly in the exhaust-gas mass flow of the exhaust-gas system of the motor vehicle to surroundings;
determining the icing condition of the sensor by comparing the energy quantity supplied for deicing and for volatilization with the energy quantity required for deicing and for volatilization;
controlling, based upon the determination of the icing condition of the sensor, the operation state of the motor vehicle, wherein controlling the operation state of the motor vehicle includes suppressing an output of erroneous control signals based on the icing condition of the sensor, where the erroneous control signals are indicative of icing of the sensor.