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Accurate estimation of catalyst bed temperatures is very crucial for effective control and diagnostics of aftertreatment systems. The architecture of most aftertreatment systems contains temperature sensors for measuring the exhaust gas temperatures at the inlet and outlet of the aftertreatment systems. However, the temperature that correctly reflects the temperature of the chemical reactions taking place on the catalyst surface is the catalyst bed temperature. From the Arrhenius relationship which governs the chemical reaction kinetics occurring in different aftertreatment systems, the rate of chemical reaction is very sensitive to the reaction temperature. Considerable changes in tailpipe emissions can result from small changes in the reaction temperature and robust emissions control systems should be able to compensate for these changes in reaction temperature to achieve the desired tailpipe emissions.

The regulated emissions of NOx and particulates from diesel engines are low enough that in many cases the emissions levels cannot be met by system architectures based on improved in-cylinder combustion technologies alone. Some of the emissions reduction has to be achieved with aftertreatment systems. Thus, diesel engine architectures for meeting the regulated tailpipe emissions consist of a combination of optimized combustion technologies, and NOx and/or particulate aftertreatment technologies. Urea-SCR is one of the NOx aftertreatment technologies being used to meet these stringent heavy duty dyno certification and light duty chassis certification emissions.

A dynamic system model for simulating the transient performance of a NOx aftertreatment system using Selective Catalytic Reduction with urea as a reductant (urea-SCR) was developed, calibrated for a heavy-duty engine application, and used to develop a closed loop self-tuning control strategy. The closed loop controller was able to reduce the FTP cycle NOx emissions from a Cummins heavy-duty engine by 84% while maintaining the mean ammonia slip below 7 ppm and the peak ammonia slip below 55 ppm. The peak ammonia slip occurred during the LA Freeway phase of the FTP cycle. Components of the urea-SCR aftertreatment system model include a urea dosing system, an exhaust pipe and a fresh vanadia-based SCR catalyst. The urea dosing system model incorporates the evaporation, thermolysis and hydrolysis stages in the conversion of urea to ammonia in the exhaust pipe and on the catalyst.