Patent ID: 7319928

Claim:
A method for real-time determination of the mass of particles present in a particle filter installed in an exhaust line of an internal combustion engine, comprising the following sequence of operations repeated at determined time intervals Δt: (i) at an instant t, measuring the temperature T(t) of the exhaust gases at the inlet of the particle filter using a temperature sensor; (ii) at the instant t, measuring operating parameters of the engine by sensors; (iii) at the instant t, reading, from pre-established tables, as a function of the operating parameters of the engine, values of the following parameters: oxygen concentration [O 2 (t)] and nitrogen oxides concentration [NO x (t)] of the exhaust gases entering the particle filter, and the rate F(t) of emission of particles from the engine; (iv) at the instant t, using the kinetic laws of chemical reactions of combustion of particles, calculating the rate V(t) of combustion of the particles in the particle filter by the following parameters: temperature T(t), concentrations [O 2 (t)], [NO x (t)] of oxidizing agents, and mass m c (t−Δt) of particles present in the filter, obtained during the reading (iii) preceding cycle of at the instant t−Δt; (v) at the instant t, calculating the mass m c (t) of particles present on the filter, using the mass m c (t−Δt) of particles obtained during the preceding cycle of operations according to the following formula: m c ( t )= m c ( t−Δt )+[ F ( t )− V ( t )]*Δ t, where Δt is the time interval between the instants t−Δt and t, (vi) reading the value calculated at the instant t for the mass m c (t) of particles present on the filter so that it can be used in the following sequence of operations at the instant t+Δt.