Claims
- 1. A method for controlling the exhaust gas of an internal combustion engine, said engine including combustion chambers, inlet conduits leading to said combustion chambers and exhaust conduits leading from said combustion chambers to the atmosphere, comprising the steps of
- placing an ion-current sensor in the exhaust conduit for measuring ion-currents;
- generating a nominal value of the ion-currents;
- periodically integrating the measured values of the ion-current, especially during one working cycle of a piston of the engine, and
- comparing said integrated ion-currents with one another, thereby deriving a signal representing a difference value and comparing said difference values with said nominal value, and
- altering the exhaust gas recycling rate in dependence on the result of said comparison.
- 2. A method for controlling the exhaust gas composition of an internal combustion engine, said engine including combustion chambers, inlet conduits leading to said combustion chambers and exhaust conduits leading from said combustion chambers to the atmosphere, comprising the steps of
- placing an ion-current sensor in the exhaust conduit for measuring ion-currents;
- generating a nominal value of the ion-currents;
- periodically integrating the measured values of the ion-current, especially during one working cycle of a piston of the engine,
- comparing the values of the integrated ion-current with said nominal value and generating a signal representing the difference between the measured values of the ion-current and said nominal value; and
- altering the exhaust gas recycling rate in dependence on the result of said comparison.
- 3. A method as defined by claim 2, wherein the exhaust gas composition is controlled by additionally altering the air-fuel mixture of the engine in dependence on the result of the comparison.
- 4. A method as defined by claim 2 or 3, wherein said ion-current sensor is placed in the immediate vicinity of the exhaust valves of the engine.
- 5. A method as defined by claim 2 or 3, wherein the result of integration is used to change the ignition timing of the engine.
- 6. A method as defined by claim 2 or 3, wherein the generated nominal value is changed in dependence of other operational parameters of the engine.
- 7. A method as defined by claim 2 or 3, wherein the step of comparing uses the increasing ion-currents resulting from the integration in the region of the air number .lambda..ltoreq.1 as a controlled variable.
- 8. A method as defined by claim 7, wherein the control variable is the increase of the integrated ion-currents at air numbers .lambda..ltoreq.1 and .lambda.<1 and wherein the transition between these two operational domains is effected by a precontrol of the air number.
- 9. A method as defined by claim 2 or 3, wherein the step of comparing includes comparing the fluctuations of sequential values of said integrated ion-current with respect to the instantaneous value I/.vertline.I.vertline. with a nominal value.
Priority Claims (1)
Number |
Date |
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Kind |
2554988 |
Dec 1975 |
DEX |
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Parent Case Info
This case is a continuation of U.S. Ser. No. 747,676 filed Dec. 6, 1976 now U.S. Pat. No. 4,372,270.
US Referenced Citations (6)
Continuations (1)
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Number |
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Parent |
747676 |
Dec 1976 |
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