Combined Ash and Soot Monitoring in Gasoline Particulate Filters with a Radio-Frequency-Based Sensor

Title data

Walter, Stefanie ; Schwanzer, Peter ; Hagen, Gunter ; Rabl, Hans-Peter ; Dietrich, Markus ; Moos, Ralf:
Combined Ash and Soot Monitoring in Gasoline Particulate Filters with a Radio-Frequency-Based Sensor.
2022
Event: SAE World Congress Experience , April 5-7, 2022 , Detroit, Michigan, USA.
(Conference item: Conference , Speech )

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Abstract in another language

In recent years, it turned out that primarily the number of ultrafine particles and not their mass is relevant in terms of harmful health effects. Therefore, exhaust emission standards are constantly being tightened with regard to the particulate number. To meet the emission limits, particulate filters have become necessary for gasoline engines. Similar to diesel applications, gasoline particulate filters (GPFs) can be monitored via differential pressure measurement or via a radio-frequency approach (RF-sensor). The latter is based on the influence of the soot conductivity on the electromagnetic field. To control the GPF, ash detection is of crucial importance besides the soot load monitoring. With the differential pressure system, this is only possible with high uncertainties due to the low pressure increase caused by ash. The RF-sensor, however, has already demonstrated its potential for ash detection in diesel applications. In order to verify the applicability of the system for GPFs, filters were loaded via a method for fast ash loading. Thereby, it was shown that by evaluating resonant modes – especially the resonant frequency – the ash loading can easily be measured as long as the filter is soot-unloaded. In contrast, soot loading can be determined independently from this by considering a frequency-averaged transmission signal between the antennas of the RF-sensor. Using a setup for radio-frequency material characterization, the dielectric parameters of the generated ash were also measured. In comparison with the properties of the synthetic soot PrintexU, ash showed significantly lower dielectric losses. Thus, the evaluation of the loss-dependent quality factor, which is only possible at low soot loadings, allows a precise conclusion whether the filter is completely soot-free. Furthermore, using synthetic soot loading, it could be shown that soot detection via the averaged transmission signal is not affected by ash. In summary, it could be shown that with the RF-sensor, ash and soot can be simultaneously detected.