A heater is provided that includes at least one resistive heating element having a material with a non-monotonic resistivity vs. temperature profile and exhibiting a negative dR/dT characteristic over a predetermined operating temperature range along the profile. The heater can include a plurality of circuits disposed in a fluid path to heat fluid flow.

A heater system for an exhaust system is provided. The heater system includes a heater disposed in an exhaust conduit. The heater includes a plurality of heating elements disposed in the exhaust conduit. A heating control module controls the plurality of heating elements differently according to operating conditions specific to each heating element. In other forms, the heater system for an exhaust system has a plurality of heating zones, instead of a plurality of heating elements. The heating control module controls the plurality of heating zones differently according to operating conditions specific to each heating zone.

A control device of an exhaust sensor comprises a heater control part configured to set a target temperature of an electrochemical cell and control a heater so that a temperature of the electrochemical cell becomes the target temperature, and a judging part configured to judge whether a water repellency of a protective layer is falling when the heater control part sets the target temperature to a temperature of a lowest temperature at which a Leidenfrost phenomenon occurs at an outer surface of the protective layer or more. The heater control part is configured to rise the target temperature when the judging part judges that the water repellency of the protective layer is falling.

A system or method for determining virtual data of a system, relative to a measurement point having a sensor located nearby, is determined by a controller. The system calculates modeled data at the measurement point, filters the modeled data to determine filtered data, and calculates a differential between the modeled data and the filtered data to determine a compensation term. The system also determines raw-sensed data from the sensor at the measurement point, and combines that raw-sensed data with the compensation data to calculate the virtual data at the measurement point. In some configurations, the modeled data is determined from a physics-based model. Furthermore, filtering the modeled data may include using a low-pass filter, and a time constant for the low-pass filter may be calculated based on operating conditions of the system.

In a method for avoiding a runaway condition of an internal combustion engine that includes a cylinder, an operational characteristic of the engine, presumed to be caused by an unrequested introduction of hydrocarbon into the cylinder, is detected and the engine is derated in dependence of the detection, and, while the engine is derated, a test procedure is performed to detect an unrequested introduction of hydrocarbon into the cylinder.

A control system for use in a fluid flow application is provided. The control system includes a heater having at least one resistive heating element. The heater is adapted to heat the fluid flow. The control system further includes a control device that uses heat loss from at least one resistive heating element to determine flow characteristics of the fluid flow.

The invention relates to a method for operating an internal combustion engine during any driving operation and in particular during a defined testing cycle which determines compliance with regulations. The internal combustion engine has at least one exhaust gas aftertreatment device with an adjustable degree of efficiency (for example by changing the reduction agent) or an exhaust gas recirculation device or alternative variables for changing the raw engine emissions. At least one monitoring window is assigned to the active profile. The aim of the invention is to allow strict exhaust gas regulations to be met in particular during real driving operations while simultaneously allowing a low fuel consumption. This is achieved in that at least one main monitoring window of the driving profile and a sub-monitoring window (F2) with a starting point and an end point are defined within a driving profile or test cycle. During the sub-monitoring window (F2), a predictive and quantitative estimation of at least one observed emission (E) for the main monitoring window F3 is carried out before reaching the end point of another main monitoring window F3, and the estimated emission quantity is compared with a defined maximum emission quantity. In the event of a large deviation of the maximum emission quantity, at least one control parameter of the internal combustion engine or the exhaust gas aftertreatment process is adaptively modified such that the quantity of the monitored emission (E) approximates the specified target value as much as possible and the consumption of operating resources is optimized.

A heater system for an exhaust system is provided. The heater system includes a heater disposed in an exhaust conduit. The heater includes a plurality of heating elements disposed in the exhaust conduit. A heating control module controls the plurality of heating elements differently according to operating conditions specific to each heating element. In other forms, the heater system for an exhaust system has a plurality of heating zones, instead of a plurality of heating elements. The heating control module controls the plurality of heating zones differently according to operating conditions specific to each heating zone.

Provided is an optical sensor directed into a combustion chamber is used to selectively sense a predefined spectral range of an optical spectrum for different light paths running through the combustion chamber to measure a gas temperature distribution in the combustion chamber. A spectral intensity is determined for each spectral range and associated with an item of light path information which identifies the light path in question. The spectral intensities determined and and the associated items of light path information are fed as input data to a machine learning routine which is trained to reproduce spatially resolved training temperature distributions. Output data from the machine learning routine are then output as the gas temperature distribution.

A method of predicting temperature of at least one location in a fluid flow system that has a heating system for heating fluid. The method includes obtaining a mass flow rate of fluid flow of the fluid flow system, obtaining at least one of a fluid outlet temperature and a fluid inlet temperature of a heater of the heating system, obtaining power provided to the heater, and calculating temperature at the at least one location based on a model of the fluid flow system and the obtained mass flow rate, fluid outlet temperature, and fluid inlet temperature.