New Method to Estimate the Flow Rate of LPL-EGR Using Cylinder Pressure Sensor

The accurate measurement of air volume is one of the critical issues in an LPL-EGR system, which has a large intake volume from the EGR valve to the combustion chamber compared to an HPL-EGR system. This includes the difficulty of measuring the flow rate of the LPL-EGR accurately. In this study, we investigated the EGR rate estimation logic with the cylinder pressure for an LPL-EGR system. This methodology is characterized by an EGR rate estimation, which uses the polytrophic change during the compression stroke, depending on the mixture and EGR rate. The polytrophic index is mainly changed by the EGR rate and the airflow rate. The EGR rate is estimated by the difference between measured pressure with sensors, and referenced pressure, which is calculated by measured parameters before compression with the assumption that the EGR rate is zero. To calculate the exact EGR rate, the influence of the air fuel ratio on the cylinder pressure was also taken into account. This paper describes engine test results to demonstrate that the developed method can predict the EGR rate accurately.