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US 9,732,646 B2Granted
Systems and methods for opportunistic diesel particulate filter regeneration
AssigneeFord Global Technologies, LLC
InventorsDevesh Upadhyay, Michael Hopka, Thomas Alan Brewbaker, Cory Scott Hendrickson
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Methods and systems are provided for opportunistic regeneration of a diesel particulate filter based on cloud based traffic information and navigation information. In one example, a method may include determining initiation of regeneration, termination of regeneration and a degree of regeneration based on information from a lead vehicular network and navigation information in order to reduce a regeneration fuel penalty.
Claims20
A method for a vehicle, comprising:
- selectively regenerating a diesel particulate filter based on a soot load, a predicted destination distance, and an estimated ability to maintain a vehicle speed greater than a threshold vehicle speed, the particulate filter receiving exhaust from a vehicle engine combusting diesel fuel;
- wherein the estimated ability to maintain the vehicle speed greater than the threshold vehicle speed is based on the vehicle speed and an average speed of other vehicles within a lead vehicle to vehicle network communicatively coupled to the vehicle.
A method for a vehicle, comprising:
- selectively regenerating a diesel particulate filter based on a soot load, a predicted destination distance, and an estimated ability of the vehicle to maintain a vehicle speed greater than a threshold vehicle speed, the particulate filter receiving exhaust from a vehicle engine combusting diesel fuel, wherein the estimated ability is maintained for a duration greater than a threshold duration;
- and
- wherein the soot load is greater than a first threshold soot load, the predicted destination distance is greater than a first threshold distance, and the vehicle speed is less than an average speed of other vehicles in a vehicle to vehicle network communicating with the vehicle.
A method for a vehicle comprising:
- during a first condition, performing regeneration of a particulate filter based on an amount of soot accumulated in the particulate filter and a cost based opportunistic regeneration condition;
- and
- during a second condition, performing regeneration based on the amount of soot accumulated and not based on the cost based opportunistic regeneration condition;
- wherein, the cost based opportunistic regeneration condition is determined based on one or more of a traffic information of a vehicular network including the vehicle, a lead vehicle network including one or more other vehicles travelling ahead of the vehicle within a threshold distance, a destination information of a destination of the vehicle, and a vehicle speed relative to an average vehicle speed of the lead vehicle network;
- wherein performing regeneration during the first condition includes performing complete regeneration in response to the vehicle speed less than the average vehicle speed;
- and
- wherein performing regeneration during the first condition includes performing partial regeneration in response to the vehicle speed greater than the average vehicle speed.
4 more elements
A system for a vehicle, comprising:
- an engine having an exhaust pipe;
- a particulate filter coupled in the exhaust pipe downstream of an emission control device;
- a communication module for communicatively coupling the vehicle to an off-board cloud network and for communicatively coupling the vehicle to a navigation system;
- and
- a computer readable storage medium having instructions encoded thereon for controlling regeneration of the particulate filter, including:
- instructions to initiate particulate filter regeneration in response to an amount of stored particulate and an estimated ability to maintain a cost of regeneration lower than a cost of filling the particulate filter for a duration greater than a threshold duration;
- and
- instructions to terminate the particulate filter regeneration in response to one or more of the amount of stored particulate falling below a threshold percentage of stored particulate, and the cost of regeneration increasing above the cost of filling;
- wherein, the threshold percentage of stored particulate is based on a particulate burning rate;
- wherein the cost of regeneration is based on an average speed of a lead vehicle network relative to a vehicle speed, the lead vehicle network including one or more other vehicles travelling ahead of the vehicle;
- and
- wherein the cost of regeneration increases as the average speed decreases relative to the vehicle speed.
9 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.