Characteristics of Resistive PM Sensors for Onboard Diagnostics of Diesel Particulate Filter Failure

Abstract

In accordance with the recently reinforced exhaust regulations and onboard diagnostics regulations, it is essential to adopt diesel particulate filter systems in diesel vehicles; a sensor that directly measures particulate matter (PM) in exhaust gas is installed to precisely monitor diesel particulate filter (DPF) failure. Because the reduction of particulate matter in the diesel particulate filter system is greatly influenced by the physical wall structure of the substrate, the presence or absence of damage to the substrate wall (cracks or local melting, etc.) determines the reliability of normal DPF operation. Therefore, an onboard diagnostics sensor for particle matter is being developed with a focus on monitoring damage to the DPF wall. In this study, as a sensor for determining damage to the substrate wall, an accumulation-type sensor whose resistance changes as soot particles are deposited between two electrodes was fabricated. The sensor characteristics were investigated by changing the gap between the sensor electrodes, sensor cap shape, and electrode bias voltage to improve resistive soot sensor sensitivity and response. From the signal characteristics of various sensor configurations, a combination sensor with improved signal stability and response time is manufactured, and they were compared with the characteristics of commercially available sensors in the engine-simulated NEDC mode in terms of the degree of DPF crack. As a result of transient mode, PM monitoring cycle was improved by 1.2~1.5 times during the same vehicle driving time compared to the existing commercial sensor.

Fuel Consumption and Emission Reduction for Non-Road Diesel Engines with Electrically Heated Catalysts

“…Therefore, aftertreatment systems for PM reduction and NOx reduction are additionally applied and now have become essential devices. The PM emissions from diesel engines have been drastically reduced with the development of the diesel particulate filter (DPF) to meet the Euro-4 emission regulations, and DPFs are now applied to almost all diesel vehicles [8,9], which are equipped with PM sensors for monitoring DPF failures [10]. For PM reduction, the aforementioned DPF is a reliable technology, but for NOx reduction, various catalytic systems such as lean NOx trap (LNT) [11,12], hydrocarbon selective catalytic reduction (SCR) [11,13], and urea SCR [11,[14][15][16][17] have been proposed depending on the exhaust conditions and various operational characteristics.…”