ThP5-4

Proceedings of the 1999 IEEE

International Conference on Control Applications
Kohala Coast-Island of Hawaii, Hawaii, USA August 22-27. 1999

5~20

Intake oxygen concentration estimation

for DI diesel engines
Sette Diop, Paul E. Moraal,
Ilya V. Kolmanovsky, Michiel van Nieuwstadt

Abstract.

In order to reduce emissions and improve performance of internal combustion engines, it is

desirable to know the oxygen concentration of the gas
inducted into the engine so that the appropriate amount
of fuel can be injected. This is especially true for diesel
engines in which up to 50% of the exhaust gas is recirculated back into the engine. This work presents
an estimation algorithm for the oxygen concentration
in the intake manifold of a turbocharged diesel engine.
The only quantities needed for the estimation scheme
are boost pressure, fueling rate, engine speed, and EGR
valve lift, all of which are generally known to the engine control unit. This estimator is a first order linear
dynamic model (with time varying coefficients) and asymptotically stable. Due to the unobservability of the
oxygen concentration model, the speed of convergence
of the estimation scheme is fixed by engine parameters,
but is as fast as the phenomenon of mixing of the exhaust gas recirculated with the air in the intake manifold. Simulation studies show the effectiveness of the
proposed estimator.

Background and Introduction

The requirements ofsimdtaneous performance improve

ment and emissions reduction drive much of todays research in diesel engine design and control.
Especially during rapid accelerations these twogoals are
closely related. In order to avoid visible smoke out of
the tailpipe, the amount of fuel injected must be limited
to match the amount of oxygen (fresh air) available for
combustion. Standard practice is to base the calculation of available air on intake pressure and temperature,
or on measured mass air flow. This does not take into
account the composition of the intake: EGR rates can
be as high as 50-60% and may contain significant concentrations of oxygen. If the amount of fresh air ( 0 2 ) is
overestimated then incomplete combustion of fuel may
cause visible smoke, if it is underestimated then the fuel
limiting scheme will be too conservative, increasing the
turbo lag and worsening the performance. Hence, accurate knowledge of the amount of 0 2 available for combustion is needed.

Mainly for reasons of cost and durability, an intake oxygen sensor is typically not available. An alternative way
of obtaining inlet oxygen concentration information is
to use dynamic observers. Such an observer would be
based on a model of the burnt gas fractions and mixing
dynamics of the fresh air and EGR in the engine. This
model happens to be linear (with time varying coefficients) and of second order. Unfortunately, however, it
is practically unobservable, excluding a straightforward
application of classical observer design theory. The estimation task is possible under one special situation: the
above dynamic model needs to be asymptotically stable.
It is fortunate that this stability requirement is met, allowing the estimation of oxygen concentration through
a simple simulation of the aforementioned model.
The estimation scheme will be complete if the coefficients of the linear model can be efficiently estimated
from measured quantities. We will show that if an inlet temperature sensor were available then we would be
able to implement a complete estimation scheme.
For the case where an inlet temperature sensor is not
available, we provide some empirical assumptions that
we have been able to verify on the available engine
model. This leads to a linear model of first order whose
coefficients depend on only one unmeasured quantity,
namely, the EGR maSS flow rate. This quantity has
been successfully estimated using neural network techimp1ementation for the
niquesi yielding a quite
Oxygen estimation scheme.

Burnt gas fraction dynamics

The model of the burnt gas fractions dynamics can simply be extracted from a mean-value model such as the
one given in Figure (1). Notations are summarized in
the table of the next page.

This control oriented model (1)for the diesel engine under consideration was described in [l]and other publications. It is a highly nonlinear model with seven dynamic
state components. Parts of the model are entirely empirical engine mappings and depend on the specific engine

P. E. Moraal: Ford Motor Co., FFA Control Systems, Aachen, Germany; e-mail: pmoraalBford.com.

I. V. Kolmanovsky, M. van Nieuwstadt: Ford Motor Co., FRL Control Systems, Dearborn, MI;
e-maik {ikolmano .mvanniel}@f ord.com.
S. Diop: Laboratoire des Signaux & Systkmes; Gif sur Yvette; France; e-mail: diopalss.supelec.fr.
The work of this author has been made possible, in part, by financial support from Ford.
0-7803-5446-XI99$10.00 0 1999 IEEE
852

one has at hand. They are not detailed here.

-Fe

4
Fx
-mi
mx

N
Pi
fi

pz

3
(WexTe
VX

- (Wri + Wxt + Wxw)Tx)

kg
kn
I rpm
I kPa
I kPa
[ kPa

pc

burnt gas fraction engine out

inlet burnt gas fraction
exhaust manifold burnt gas
fraction
mass in intake manifold
mass in exhaust manifold
I engine speed
I Dost-EGR-valve Dressure
I intake manifold pressure
[ exhaust manifold (preturbine)
I Dressure
I
compressor power
turbine power
~~

Dost-intercooler temDerature

(-Pc+71mPt) .
Ttc

The burnt gas fractions in intake and exhaust manifolds

evolve according to the following dynamics

Intake Manifold
Fuel injection:

and the engine outputs:

kg/s

Vm

WO1

pi

Figure 1: Schematic drawing of turbocharged intercooled Diesel engine

along with the constitutive relation

Wxw

@.

kg/m3

flow into turbine

flow through wastegate
EGR valve lift [O..l]
specific heat ratio
mechanical efficiency of
turbocharger
volumetric efficiency
density in intake manifold
stoichiometric fuel/air ratio

Observability issues

Among the quantities which are potentially involved in

the estimation of the burnt gas fractions, only w =
(Wci,Wf,pi, N,x r ) are usually available in an online basis. It is therefore apparent that the above engine model
does not exhibit observability of F, and Fx.
While one may easily agree on this assertion by inspecting the engine model, its formal proof would, unfortunately, require tedious developments involving formal

853

While one may easily agree on this assertion by inspecting the engine model, its formal proof would, unfortunately, require tedious developments involving formal
manipulations of engine mappings in particular. It is
true that physical facts may be brought out to argue the
observability of 4 for instance. One such fact is that the
specific heat at constant volume of the air/combustion
gas mixture in the intake manifold is typically a function
of 4. The point is that the resulting dependence of the
supposedly measured quantities is very weak, leading to
an observability condition which is nearly singular.
Given the dynamics of mi and w, asserting the burnt
gas fractions to be unobservable from the dynamics
model ( 2 ) amounts to asserting that the following variables Wci, Wi,, We,, W,,, Wxt, Wri, and Wf are independent of 4, F,, and Fe.
Consequently, the burnt gas fractions dynamics become
linear
F = A(t)F B ( t ) ,
(5)

for the overall engine control synthesis, we would like

the convergence of the estimator to be as fast as a prescribed exponential, in other words, uniform exponential
stability will be required for Equations (6).
If V ( e ) ,with e = (ei,e,), denotes the norm used to a p
preciate how fast the estimation error e should go to
zero, then the exponential stability reads as the condition
*
av
V = x A ( t ) e 5 -V(e)/T, for T > 0.
(7)
We are thus led to the choice of the time constant T and
V ( e ) so that A ( t ) satisfies condition ( 7 ) for all F and
t 2 to.
There do not seem to be physical clues to the choice of
some exceptional V function. The most practical conditions that we found are as in the following result.

Theorem 1 The estimation error n o m

(4 -

with time varying coefficients

-3 Wri 1

+ (F, - g,)'

decays as fast as e--(t-to)/Tfor some to if the following

symmetric matrix inequality

2%
The unobservability implies that the only way to provide an estimate of these quantities will be under an
asymptotic stability condition of a dynamic model of 4
and F,. Since the concentration quantities 4 and F,
range between 0 and 1 no matter how the engine o p
erates, the stability issue is how the control variable of
the model should be constrained in order for the resulting submodel of 4 and F, to be both consistent and
asymptotically stable.

Exponential stability

m,

>I / ( W
holds for all t 2 to.
The above symmetric matrix inequality means that
Q ( t ) - 1/(27) is positive definite. Here I stands for the
unit matrix of order 2.

Remark 2 Let lls first note that matrix A is strictly

diagonal dominant, i.e., IA(1,l)I > IA(1,2)1 and
IA(2,2)1 > IA(2,l)I. This resultsfrom equations (3) and
(4). Therefore, the eigenvalues of A have negative real
parts. But this does not provide a proof of our theorem.

The dynamic system

i = A(t)$ + . B ( t ) .
/

To prove the theorem we consider the following

is an asymptotic estimator for 4 and_F, if, and only if,

the origin, i.e., the point (ei = 4 - 4, e, = Fx - F,) =
(0, 0), of the homogeneous part of ( 5 ) :
B =A(t)e,

(6)

is an asymptotic stable equilibrium point. In this case

the influence of the initial error of the estimator will die
out as time elapses. In practice, for various reasons, including the need for a rapid availability of the estimates

854

V ( e )= e?

+ e;

where e is a solution of (6), and note that

V = 2e'A(t)e = 2e'sym(A(t))e= -2e'Q(t)e

where sym(A(t)) = ( A ( t )+ A ( t ) ' ) / 2 = -Q(t) and

the prime denotes transposition of real valued matrices.
Condition (8) is exactly the one for the symmetric matrix Q ( t ) to be 1/(2r)-unifomlypositive definite, that

is, e'Q(t)e I- e'e/(2~), for all e and t 1 to where to is

the instant from which condition (8) holds thereafter.
Matrix

W,,,is known through the engine output equation (4),

and, m, may be obtained as follows.

Q is actually a matrix of inverses of time w n -

m, = Pxvx

stants that have some physical interpretation. Though

non exact, see Remark (2), it may be roughly thought

that condition (8) means that Wl,/ml > 1/(27) and
W a x / m x> 1/(27) for all t >, to.
Condition (8) may be seen aa an additional guideline
in the design of the overall engine control: it indicates
conditions that need to be satisfied for the speed of convergence of the estimation of 4 and F, to be aa fast as
e-(t-h)/t,

where px is the gas density in the exhaust manifold) and

V, is the exhaust volume. Now

where the engine speed N/120 represents the number of

engine cycles per second. It follows that

-m,-

we,

Implementation options
that is,

8.1 Implementation with an intake temperature sensor

The estimator of 4 and Fx is, therefore) merely, the
duplicate of the burnt gas fractions model

fi = A(t)P + B ( t ) .

(9)

Since we are basically concerned with the estimation of

4, we might have thought of eliminating F, from Equations (5). The trouble then would be that the coefficients of the resulting second order linear model for 4
would depend on time derivatives of the above coefficients. This would greatly obscure the stability analysis
by forcing one to make unnecessary assumptions.
We now turn to the implementation discussion of the
estimator (9). Some of the coefficients in (9) may not
be known and, therefore, necessitate estimation again.
We show that if an intake temperature sensor is available
then estimator (9) may be fully implemented.

pi, N,and
WO assume the quantities Wd,Wf,
avnil~bleonline.

Ti to be

The total engine intake is given by

The volumetric efficiency may be considered constant at

first; in the end it can be implemented as a lookup table
or function of the appropriate engine operating parametws. Then Wle is known if 7l is known.

Wrl is known from the relation (3)) and mi is known

from the ided gas law applied to the intake manifold.
Consequently, T,i iaay be estimated through dynrunics in the engine dynamics model (1)) for instance, by
using numericd differentiation techniques for the coniputatian of h.

vx120
- -vd N
v, 120
vd N

m, = W=--

We thus may conclude what follows.

Theorem 3 The burnt gas fractions estimation may be

implemented as the dynamic model

8 = A(t)P+ B(t)
provided that condition (8)holds and an intake temperature sensor is available.
Now the point is that such an impiementation has two
major drawbacks. First, it assumes an inlet temperature sensor which is not necessarily desirable. Second,
the uncertainty on the volumetric efficiency may induce
large errors on the total engine flow rate Wi,.

5.2 Implementation without temperature sensor

We return to the dynamic model'(2) and propose to
break the algebraic loop of the estimation of the coefficients of this model, not by assuming a new sensor to
be available, but by neglecting the mixing dynamics of
F, in the exhaust manifold.

Assumption 4
Fe = F,

This c\ssumption is quite realistic considering the relatively small volume of the exhaust manifold and the high
gAs velocities associated with the blow-down of exhaust

gas out of the engine int.0 the exhaust syst.em. Simulation results shown in the figure below also support this
Assumption.

855

where

Fi,(t) = (1

L2J

........

..................,.........,.....__.__.................................................I

.
.
........................................
.........
.
.
i
1
... . . . I ................... .........i. ........i_ .........I_ ........ + ........i ......... :........
..
.
..

.:

:.

lo,
0
J.

..............

U*

0.1

Qs

@(t) evaluates to

0.6,

.
..
...
..
.
...............................................
.
.

+ )WciW+f Wt wCiS +r iEri

+hOtolO+d.

;........I

; j

. . . . . . .!. .... ...!........ .. . . . . . ......... ......... ........

.
.
.
.
3
4
5
6
7
6
e
10
I.

where R(0) is of course taken to be 0.

SNinMamda

Figure 2:

Fe

(red dashed line) and F, (green solid line).

This figure, as all others in this presentation, are results

of simulation of a 2.4 liter DI Diesel engine over a Euro
cycle. Using this assumption, instead of a second order
model, we get a first order model for the intake burnt
gas fraction dynamics:

Remark 5 It is noticeable that Em( t ) is free of the volumr+c

efficiency estimate. Moreover, the dependence
of fi,(t) with respect to the E G R flow estimate is via a
rational function with low sensitivity to errors.

Remark 6 The dependence of x(t) with respect t o the

EGR flow estimate is, also, via a rational function ujth
low sensitivity to errors. But at high engine speed X(t)
may be quite sensitive to ewors on volumetric efficiency
estimate.
The estimation initial error, f l ( O ) , will die out as fast
as the time function

By Equation (3)
1--

t H exp

,o

Wri

wex

then, under Assumption (4), the intake burnt gas fnrc-

tion evolves according to an exponentially stable dynamics.

(-

X(s)ds)

decreases to zero when time elapses. We provide the

following plot of the integral of X(t) to picture the situation.

Rewriting Equation (10) in the following form

4 = - X ( t ) (4 - F,,(t)) ,

im

........................................................................................
.
.
.
. . . . . . ..i. . . . . . . . . . . .

............ i. . . . . . . . . . . :. . . . . . . .j. . . . . . . . . .j

and, using the volumetric efficiency, we note that

-Wie
=

vd

- 2m

q 120

mi

.......... ...; ........... :

..........................
0

200

hence

and

vd N
X(t) = - -

5.3

120

+ Wf + wri77v,

. . . . . . :. . . . . . . : . . . . . . . . .: . . . . . . . . .

.............:...............;...............:..............
BM

400

800

1200

1Mx)

...............
..............................................

Wci +Wf
wci

;,

......
*

.......

......

...............:._.

The proposed estimator

os

Finally we obtain the following equation for the estimation of the intake manifold burnt gas fraction:

ii= -X(t) (s - Em(t)) ,

856

......

..............;. ...............................
......................
1

1.5

2.6

timsh.konds

(- Jot

Figure 3: exp
X(s)ds) . In about 3 seconds, the
estimation initial error &(O) is devided by el0.

5.4

Estimation of the unknown parameters

5.5

Volumetric efficiency is a complex function of intake and

exhaust pressures and temperatures, as well as the engine speed. From engine data it ranges from 0.55 to
0.95. For simplicity and without loss of generality we
aasume it to be constant for now. The volumetric efficiency enters the estimator equations only in the time
constant of the mixing dynamics for Fi, which is quite
fast aa it is. Since it does not affect the steady state
error, it doesn't have to be estimated with very high
accuracy. The EGR flow, on the other hand, has to be
known quite accurately in order to get a good estimator
for F,. In mean-value models, it is typically described
by a standard orifice flow equation with effective flow
area as a function of the EGR valve opening. The EGR
flow is thus a function of pressure ratio across the valve,
valve opening, and upstream (i.e., exhaust side) pressure
and temperature. For the oxygen estimation algorithm,
we decided not to use this type of EGR flow characterization for two reasons: First of all, the exhaust pressure
and temperature are not measured and would therefore
have to be estimated. Secondly, the effective flow area
turns out to be a rather complex function (obtained by
regression of experimental data) of several inputs. Instead, we decided to perform a curve fit, not of the effective flow area, but of the actual EGR flow directly.
This eliminates some computations and the need for estimation of intermediate variables. Best results were
obtained by using a feedforward neural network with
one threenode hidden layer and inputs boost pressure,
engine speed, fueling rate, and EGR valve position.

T am,
0,015

0.01

0.m

Simulation

We finally present the simulation of the burnt gas fraction in the intake manifold that our estimation scheme
allows to obtain. Note that for the EGR estimation, the
above described neural network was used, whereas the
mean value engine model against which the estimator is
compared, utilized the orifice flow equation.

2 0.~1

..............

24.05

10

15

20

25

30

IimetnlrmC

Figure 5: 4 (red dashed line) and

The estimator performs fine!

(green solid line).

Conclusion

We have presented a quite complete estimation scheme

for the burnt gas fraction in the intake manifold of internal combustion engines. This estimator is of particular
interest for application to diesel engines because of their
potentially high EGR rates. The main piece of information needed for the estimator to work is a rather accurate
representation of the EGR flow. This was achieved, in
simulations at least, by use of a neural network approximation of mapped engine data. Experimental validation
is currently being carried out.

...............>............ :.....

References

............... ...............
.............:. ............. :................

10

16

................

20

25

30

Figure 4: Wri (red dashed line) and Gri (green solid

line) in kg/s. The estimation of Wri is quite perfect!

857

[l] I. V. Kolmanovsky, P. E. Moraal, M. J. van Nieuwstadt, A. G. Stefanopoulou, Issues in modelling

and control of intake flow in variable geometry turbocharged engines, in Proceedings of the 18th IFIP
TC7 Conference on System Modelling and Optimization, Addison-Wesley, Longman, 1998.