Patent ID: 9500145
Filing Date: 2016-11-22
CPC Classification: F02D,F02M

Claim Text:
1. An apparatus for determining a condition of an exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) cooler of an internal combustion engine, comprising: a clean EGR cooler module configured to estimate the temperature of exhaust gas exiting a clean EGR cooler based on a pre-calibrated coefficient associated with a clean EGR cooler, wherein the pre-calibrated coefficient associated with the clean EGR cooler is determined based on a detected mass flow rate of exhaust gas through the EGR cooler, a detected EGR cooler inlet temperature, and a detected EGR coolant temperature; a fouled EGR cooler module configured to estimate the temperature of exhaust gas exiting a fouled EGR cooler based on a pre-calibrated coefficient associated with a fouled EGR cooler, wherein the pre-calibrated coefficient associated with the fouled EGR cooler is determined based on the detected mass flow rate of exhaust gas through the EGR cooler; an EGR cooler effectiveness module configured to determine a normalized effectiveness of the EGR cooler based on a temperature of exhaust gas through the EGR cooler with the estimated temperature of exhaust gas exiting a clean EGR cooler and the estimated temperature of exhaust gas exiting a fouled EGR cooler, wherein the normalized effectiveness of the EGR cooler is determined without direct use of the detected mass flow rate of exhaust gas; and an EGR cooler condition module configured to determine a condition of the EGR cooler based on the normalized effectiveness of the EGR cooler, wherein an alert is provided to a user based on the determined condition of the EGR cooler.