Ford Global Technolgoies, LLC

Ford Motor Company Limited

Thomas J Korniski

Alex D Colvin

James W Butler

James Stewart Rankin, Ii

Haren S Gandhi

William L Watkins

Elaine Cecilia Beckwith

Eugene C Su

Paul D Maker

A portable exhaust gas flow sensor includes a tube for coupling to an exhaust pipe of a vehicle and having a thin screen or similar flow restricting element to induce a pressure drop based on the exhaust gas flow with an upstream port and a downstream port relative to the flow restricting element connected to a differential pressure transducer. A thermocouple extends through a temperature port to measure exhaust gas temperature flowing through the tube. A processor in communication with the thermocouple and the differential pressure transducer determines the exhaust gas flow based on the differential pressure and the temperature. The flow restricting element includes sufficient spaces to resist formation of condensation and minimize added back pressure while providing an accurately measurable pressure drop for flows ranging from idle to full throttle.

Portable vehicle exhaust flow sensor

A portable exhaust gas flow sensor includes a tube for coupling to an exhaust pipe of a vehicle. The tube includes a circular flow restricting element to induce a pressure drop based on the exhaust gas flow with an upstream port and a downstream port relative to the flow restricting element connected to a differential pressure transducer. A thermocouple extends through a temperature port to measure exhaust gas temperature flowing through the tube. A processor in communication with the thermocouple and the differential pressure transducer determines the exhaust gas flow based on the differential pressure and the temperature. The circular flow restricting element includes sufficient spaces to resist formation of condensation and minimize added back pressure while providing an accurately measurable pressure drop for flows ranging from idle to full throttle.

A resin coated sand is blown into a core box to form an uncured core with a desired packing density. The core box has one or more inlets to permit ingress of gases and one or more outlets to permit egress of only gases. A non-catalyzing gas is passed through the defined sand core in the core box to create a first effluent and the hydrocarbon content in such first effluent that was exposed to the uncured resin of the sand core is measured. A catalyst carrying gas (nitrogen) is injected into the inlets to pass through the defined sand core within the core box for polymerizing the resin and thence exit from the outlets as a second effluent. The hydrocarbon content of the second effluent is continuously measured (i.e. non-dispersive infrared spectroscopy system). When the hydrocarbon content decreases to approximately the hydrocarbon content of the first effluent, the core box is opened to remove the sand core in a consistently cured condition.

Method of making catalyst cured resin-coated sand cores

A method and apparatus for controlling air/fuel ratio of an internal combustion engine at a desired level of richness or leanness utilizes an existing air flow sensor for sensing air flow into the engine and generating a corresponding air flow signal. A signal multiplier multiplies the air flow signal by a constant to generate a modified air flow signal corresponding to the desired level of richness or leanness. A control signal is then generated for controlling the air/fuel ratio to the desired level.

Method and system for predictably controlling air/fuel ratio

A method and associated apparatus for on-line gas analysis of a multicomponent gas emission flow, comprising: continuously withdrawing and regulating the pressure of a first sample flow from the emission flow, continuously withdrawing a second sample flow from the first sample flow, the second flow sample being diluted with mass controlled amounts of diluent (N.sub.2 or air) to lower the dew point of the gas sample to below room temperature; controlling the absolute pressure of the diluted sample to the range of 920-950 mbar; frequently periodically analyzing the diluted sample flow, controlled as to pressure, by fourier-transform infrared spectrometric techniques to render a concentration measurement for each desired gas species; and correcting each concentration measurement for dilution to derive an undiluted concentration measurement representative of the actual exhaust gas, said correction being accomplished by measuring the actual air/fuel ratio of the gas emission flow to provide a theoretical carbon concentration in the undiluted exhaust gas and thereafter ratioing the theoretical total carbon concentration to the measured carbon concentration in the sample to provide the needed correction factor.

Direct sampling of engine emissions for instantaneous analysis

A method is disclosed for substantially completely catalytically oxidizing alcohol vapor and/or formaldehyde vapor contained in low concentration in a heated carrier gas mixture at low temperatures such as encountered in exhaust gas treatment during the engine warm-up period and having oxygen present in a wide range of lambda values from momentarily rich (0.8) to very lean engine operation (lambda&gt;5). The carrier gas mixture is sequentially exposed (i) to a first catalyst consisting substantially of palladium and of rhodium in a weight ratio of Rh/Pd of 0-0.3, and/or CeO.sub.2 in a weight ratio of CeO.sub.2 Pd of 0-50, and (ii) subsequently immediately to a second catalyst consisting substantially of the base metal silver, whereby the combination of said catalysts synergistically improve the oxidation of said mixture to achieve at least a 96% oxidation conversion of said alcohol vapor and to produce less than 1% of the coverted methanol as aldehydes. Palladium is effective in converting methanol to CO.sub.2 and water vapor at relatively low light-off temperatures in the absence as well as in the presence of excess oxygen. The resultant gas products from oxidation over the palladium catalyst will be elevated in temperature and be more suitable for further conversion by a separate silver catalyst, preferably in the presence of excess oxygen.

Method of catalytically oxidizing alcohol vapor accompanied by varying

A method is disclosed of making an on-line gas analysis of a multicomponent gas emission flow by (a) continuously sequestering a sample flow from the gas emission flow, which sample flow may be filtered to substantially eliminate solid or liquid particles, diluted to lower its dew point to below room temperature, and changed in either temperature and/or pressure to be substantially the same in temperature and pressure as that of gases used to create reference transmission frequency spectral data employed in step (d); (b) continuously irradiating the sample flow with an electromagnetic radiation beam while modulating the amplitude of infrared frequencies in the audio frequency range of the beam, either prior to or immediately subsequent to irradiation of the sample flow, to produce electromagnetic signals having discernible amplitude variations resulting from spectral interference patterns; (c) detecting and collecting the signals at a sufficiently high rate to substantially completely distinguish between adjacent spectral pattern amplitude peaks without mutual spectral interference and to permit analysis of the signals in real time; and (d) analyzing the signals in real time by (i) mathematically manipulating the signals in accordance with Beer's Law to create reformed background-corrected data, and (ii) applying reference transmission frequency spectral data to the reformed data for each suspected gaseous component to give a linear quantitative measure of the presence of each and every suspected gas component in the gas emission flow.

Measuring multicomponent constituency of gas emission flow

A method is disclosed of making an on-line gas analysis of a multicomponent gas emission flow by (a) continuously sequestering a sample flow from the gas emission flow, which sample flow has been filtered to substantially eliminate solid or liquid particles, diluted to lower its dew point to below room temperature, and changed in either temperature and/or pressure to be substantially the same in temperature and pressure as that of gases used to create reference transmission frequency spectral data deployed in step (d); (b) continuously irradiating the sample flow with an electromagnetic radiation beam while modulating the amplitude of infrared frequencies in the audio frequency range of the beam, either prior to or immediately subsequent to irradiation of the sample flow, to produce electromagnetic signals having discernible amplitude variations resulting from spectral interference patterns; (c) detecting and collecting the signals at a sufficiently high rate to substantially completely distinguish between adjacent spectral pattern amplitude peaks without mutual spectral interference and to permit analysis of the signals in real time; and (d) analyzing the signals in real time by (i) mathematically manipulating the signals in accordance with Beer's Law to create reformed background-corrected data, and (ii) applying reference transmission frequency spectral data to the reformed data for each suspected gaseous component to give a linear quantitative measure of the presence of each and every suspected gas component in the gas emission flow.

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Livonia, MI, United States of America

Thomas J Korniski