Patent ID: 8577568

Claim:
A method of managing vehicle engine/transmission systems to assist in thermal management of an engine exhaust aftertreatment system, the method comprising: receiving data indicative of at least one current vehicle operating condition, said operating condition data including data signifying at least one of transmission out power and speed, current gear number, transmission gearing set, current engine temperature, current engine speed, current engine torque, and fueling; receiving data from engine fueling maps based on warm-up conditions; receiving a target temperature; determining a first expected exhaust temperature based on a transmission down shift and higher engine speed in view of said operating condition data and said fueling maps; determining a second expected exhaust temperature based on a transmission down shift and higher engine speed coupled with fuel dosing; determining a third expected exhaust temperature based on fuel dosing and non-shifted transmission; comparing said first, second and third expected exhaust temperatures against said target temperature; and providing a transmission gear shift recommendation in view of the compared expected exhaust temperatures based on an optimization of overall fuel economy.