Liquid concentration sensing device

Abstract

A capacitance sensing section senses a capacitance between first and second electrodes. A temperature sensing section senses fuel temperature. A microcomputer functions as a concentration sensing section and senses a concentration of ethanol contained in fuel based on the capacitance sensed by the capacitance sensing section and the temperature sensed by the temperature sensing section. The microcomputer functions as an abnormality detecting section and performs abnormality determination to determine that an abnormality has occurred in the capacitance sensing section when the capacitance sensed by the capacitance sensing section does not change and the temperature sensed by the temperature sensing section changes. Since a dielectric constant has such a temperature characteristic that the dielectric constant changes with the temperature, the abnormality detecting section can detect occurrence of the abnormality in the capacitance sensing section.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.