A control apparatus for an engine includes a rotation detector, a fuel injection device, and an output controller. The output controller calculates an emission amount of the pollutant and calculates an accumulated emission amount of a pollutant for a period of time. The output controller calculates a maximum allowable emission amount of the pollutant for a period of time. The output controller calculates a difference between the accumulated emission amount of pollutant and the maximum allowable emission amount of the pollutant. The output controller calculates a first output index by dividing the difference by the period of time. The output controller sets the allowable range for the output of the engine so that the emission amount of pollutant becomes equal to or less than the first output index.

Various methods and systems are provided for controlling emissions. In one example, a controller is configured to respond to one or more of intake manifold air temperature (MAT), intake air flow rate, or a sensed or estimated intake oxygen fraction by changing an exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) amount to maintain particulate matter (PM) and NOx within a range, and then further adjusting the EGR amount based on NOx sensor feedback.

Particulate accumulation in a particulate filter in the exhaust line of an engine is calculated by an electronic engine control unit. When the estimated accumulated particulate mass exceeds a predetermined threshold, an automatic regeneration step of the filter is activated. An actual instantaneous burned particulate mass is calculated as a function of values indicative of the state of the filter. A temporary correction factor representing an error between a theoretical value and the actual value is calculated. The temporary correction factor is stored in a second map of correction factors, based on the engine operating conditions. During an accumulation step, the estimated instantaneous particulate mass, calculated according to the first map based on the operating conditions of the engine, is multiplied by a correction factor calculated according to the second map based on the operating conditions of the engine.

A method and system for determining remaining useful life of an in-use injector of a reciprocating engine is disclosed. The method includes determining nozzle wear relationship data for different duty cycles of the in-use injector, and using the nozzle wear relationship data together with operating parameters for the reciprocating engine, and emission relationship data to determine actual emission levels for the in-use injector based on the wear relationship data and the emission relationship data. The method and system further include determining remaining useful life of the in-use injector based on actual emission levels and the nozzle wear relationship data; and controlling an operation of the reciprocating engine based on the actual emission levels.

A controller executes a dither control process and a deposition amount calculating process. In the dither control process, on condition that an execution request for a regeneration process of the filter is made, fuel injection valves are operated such that at least one of the cylinders is a lean combustion cylinder, and at least another one of the cylinders is a rich combustion cylinder. In the deposition amount calculating process, a deposition amount is calculated such that, as compared to a case in which a target value of an average value of an exhaust air-fuel ratio in a predetermined period by the dither control process is a first air-fuel ratio, a decrease amount per unit time of the deposition amount is calculated to be a great value in a case in which the target value is a second air-fuel ratio, which is leaner than the first air-fuel ratio.

Disclosed is a method, system, vehicle, and computer program for improving heat release evaluation at a reciprocating combustion engine. The method comprises providing a model regarding volume deviations in the combustion chamber based on a first set of dynamic parameters of the combustion engine. Said model comprises volume deviations due to thermal changes, due to mass forces and due to pressure forces. The method comprises determining the first set of dynamic parameters relating to the combustion engine, and determining the volume deviation in the combustion chamber based on said provided model and based on said first set of determined dynamic parameters. The method comprises providing an adaption model for the combustion engine based on said determined volume deviation in the combustion chamber, and adapting the combustion engine control and/or a diagnostic system of the combustion engine based on said adaption model so that said heat release evaluation is improved.

Methods and systems are provided for particulate matter control in an engine configured for skip-fire operation. A cylinder pattern selected for selective cylinder deactivation, including a total number of deactivated/active cylinders as well as individual deactivated cylinder identities, may be adjusted based on an engine soot load, or a parameter indicative of engine soot load such as engine coolant temperature. In addition, reactivated engine cylinders may be transiently operated with split fuel injection to raise combustion surface temperatures.

A method to determine soot mass of a gasoline engine powered automobile vehicle includes: predefining a time period between approximately 50 seconds to 200 seconds defining a cold start operation of a gasoline engine; determining a critical engine cold start temperature at a time defining a start of the cold start operation; identifying a cold start soot mass value from a lookup table based on the predefined time period and the critical engine cold start temperature; calculating a hot engine soot mass value for a hot engine operating time; repeating the calculating step for at least one next successive hot engine operating time; and adding the cold start soot mass value to the hot engine soot mass value for the hot engine operating time and the at least one next successive hot engine operating time to define a total soot mass value.

A control apparatus for an internal combustion engine is provided. The control apparatus includes a temperature sensor and an electronic control unit. The temperature sensor is configured to detect the temperature of an exhaust gas control apparatus. The electronic control unit is configured to: estimate a sulfuric compound accumulation amount on the exhaust gas control apparatus; and when a specific condition in which the sulfuric compound accumulation amount is equal to or larger than a predetermined accumulation amount and the temperature of the exhaust gas control apparatus is equal to or higher than a predetermined temperature or more is satisfied, control an intake air amount adjuster such that an intake air amount when the specific condition is satisfied is increased as compared to the intake air amount when the specific condition is not satisfied in the same operation state.

The invention relates to a method for determining pollutant emissions from a vehicle (PSEE, pollutant emissions from the post-treatment system), said method being based on the use of measurements of the position (pos.sub.GPS) and/or the altitude (alt.sub.GPS) and/or the speed of the vehicle (v.sub.GPS), using models of the vehicle (MOD VEH), the engine (MOD MOT) and the post-treatment system (MOD POT) produced with macroscopic parameters (PAR).