Proper operation of an internal combustion engine is required by demands of a vehicle driver and governmental legislations. Therefore it is necessary to monitor, within an online technique, the engine and detect any fault which disrupts its normal operation. In this paper, the air-charge path, as a key element in a turbocharged engine, is monitored for an air leakage fault. At first, a robust algorithm to estimate unmeasured turbocharger rotational speed is presented. The sliding mode methodology is used to design the estimator which is shown to be robust to the compressor modeling uncertainties. The estimation error from the sliding mode observer (SMO) is then used to detect abnormal behavior of the turbocharger along with the engine due to a leakage fault in the air-charge path. Experimental results from a modern turbocharged SI engine indicate the designed monitoring technique is able to detect a leakage fault, of 7 mm or higher sizes, in the air-charge path.
