95

Technical Note

Ambient temperature inuence on catalytic outletinlet

temperature dierence
P N Botsaris* and P D Sparis
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Laboratory of Mechanical Engineering, Democritus University
of Thrace, Xanthi, Greece
Abstract: The present paper investigates the eects of ambient temperature on catalyst eciency
monitoring via temperature measurements. This approach utilizes the raw data obtained from outlet
inlet temperature sensors and after a statistical treatment yields the necessary information about the
catalyst level of eciency. An increase in ambient temperature is accompanied with an increase in
catalyst average eciency. This is reected by the outletinlet temperature dierence of the catalyst
which also increases linearly. The improvement in catalyst eciency as a result of the ambient
temperature eect is stronger for a new catalyst than for an older one. The present paper also
describes an algorithm that takes into account this phenomenon for the diagnostic monitoring of
catalyst performance.
Keywords: catalytic converter, diagnosis, temperature dierence, ambient temperature inuence
1

INTRODUCTION

The development of three-way catalysts is generally

considered as a very important step towards removing
automotive emissions from the top position among
urban pollution sources. However, to take full advantage of this reduction, the car exhaust and fuel control
system must be in good working order. To alert the
driver of possible faults in the emission control system,
the state of California requires that all cars sold in this
state after 1993 be equipped with an on-board diagnostic (OBD) assessment system. This system can
monitor the engine operation and the catalyst performance. It alerts the driver to catalyst deterioration
before it results in exhaust emissions greater than 0.6 g/
mile HC or an increase greater than 0.4 g/mile HC [1]. It
is clear that all car manufacturers interested in the
Californian auto market will try to comply with this
specication and now, as OBD technology has progressed, the present Californian legislation has been
adopted by other states in the United States and by the
European Community, with minor modications [24].
The Californian exhaust emission limits imposed on
HC suggest that a catalyst assessment system based on a
sensor monitoring this pollutant is more desirable,
The MS was received on 14 January 1999 and was accepted after
revision for publication on 20 August 1999.
*Corresponding author: Department of Electrical and Computer
Engineering, Laboratory of Mechanical Engineering, Democritus
University of Thrace, Xanthi 67100, Greece.
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although a CO or NOx sensor is also a possibility.

Presently HC sensors are under development [5, 6], but
they are not yet commercially available [4]. Therefore,
until the necessary technological progress is made,
compromise technical solutions must be found for the
design of low-cost monitoring systems based on existing
sensor technology.
Presently, two alternative technologies are under
development. The rst approach uses existing oxygen
sensors [7] and is currently used by several car manufacturers. Using the oxygen sensor approach, an additional oxygen sensor is installed after the catalyst which
can evaluate the catalyst performance by comparing its
signal with the normal oxygen sensor placed before the
catalyst [810].
An alternative approach to oxygen sensors for catalyst
eciency monitoring is the use of temperature sensors,
i.e. thermocouples [1119]. This approach has not yet
been introduced in car production. The operating principle of this system is to measure the temperature rise
within the catalyst owing to the heat generated by the
oxidation of CO and HC. As the catalyst ages, the percentage of oxidized CO and HC will decrease, as will the
heat generated by these exothermic reactions. The
reduction of NOx has similar results.
The present paper describes the ambient temperature
inuence in catalyst diagnostic monitoring based on the
outletinlet temperature dierence. As mentioned in
reference [14], this is an alternative approach that can be
used for catalyst eciency assessment based on time
integration of the outletinlet temperature dierence
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P N BOTSARIS AND P D SPARIS

signal. This integration is specially useful when the

engine operates under variable load. Using this
approach, the raw data obtained from the outletinlet
thermocouples are statistically treated to yield the
necessary information about the catalyst level of
eciency. The statistical processing of real-time measurements appears unavoidable in view of the complexity
of catalyst behaviour during the unsteady conditions of
ordinary driving. For this purpose an appropriate
microprocessor-controlled assessment system was designed and installed on a test vehicle. The results of
reference [14] indicate that the catalyst outletinlet
temperature dierence is also inuenced by the ambient
temperature. According to experimental results obtained during this research, as the ambient temperature
increases, the outletinlet temperature dierence of the
catalyst also tends to increase linearly. An increase in
ambient temperature is accompanied with an increase
in catalyst average eciency. The improvement, or
otherwise, in catalyst eciency owing to the ambient
temperature eect is stronger for a new catalyst than
for an older one. The present paper describes this
relationship and an algorithm that takes it into account
for the diagnostic monitoring of catalyst performance.
To monitor the exhaust emissions, the catalyst outlet
inlet temperature dierence and the ambient temperature, an appropriate data logging system was also
developed and installed. The results of the driving tests
performed are illustrated and discussed in the following
sections.
2

INSTRUMENTATION AND TEST

PROCEDURES

The experimental measurements were carried out on a

SUZUKI VITARA model with a ve-gear manual

transmission. This is a 1598 cm3 four-cylinder engine

with a 97 DIN PS output at 5600 r/min and 132 N m at
4000 r/min. The engine has single-point injection and
uses a monolithic-type catalyst.
During tests, besides the catalyst inlet and outlet
temperature measurements, the engine speed, the vehicle
speed and the exhaust gas composition were also monitored. The temperature measurements were made by
dierential thermocouples. The dierential thermocouples (K-type) used have a exible stainless steel
shielding and a 01000  C temperature range with
an accuracy of 3  C (0400  C) and 0.75 per cent
(4001100  C). Dierential thermocouples eliminate the
need for reference junction compensation and special
thermocouple extension wires, and require only one
read-out device, thereby reducing cost and data deduction. An ignition pulse detector was used for the engine
speed measurements.
To investigate the relation between the outletinlet
temperature dierence and the ambient temperature, an
ambient temperature measurement sensor was added to
the on-board instrument evaluating the catalytic converter eciency. For this reason, a common thermistor
with an operating resistance of 0.47 k
at 25  C was
used. The typical characteristic of the sensor is shown in
Fig. 1, while the corresponding measurements are shown
in Table 1.
A current of 1 mA was used for the supply of the
sensor, fed from the instrument supply circuit through a
high-precision 5 k
resistor. As a result, Fig. 1 also
represents the TV characteristic of the sensor, where T
is the temperature and V the output voltage. In comparison with other temperature sensors, e.g. a thermocouple or variable resistance, the thermistor is generally
considered as the most recommended solution for
measuring reference and compensating temperatures
[20].

Fig. 1 Common thermistor response

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AMBIENT TEMPERATURE INFLUENCE ON CATALYTIC OUTLETINLET TEMPERATURE DIFFERENCE

Table 1 Typical measurements of the sensor

Temperature
 C)

Resistance
k

Voltage output
(V) with 1 mA

0.2
9.9
11.2
11.5
12.4
15.4
16.9
21.3
25
30
35
40

1.11
0.82
0.8
0.79
0.77
0.69
0.66
0.53
0.47
0.4
0.33
0.28

1.11
0.82
0.8
0.79
0.77
0.69
0.66
0.53
0.47
0.4
0.33
0.28

For the exhaust gas measurements a HORIBA

MEXA-574GE (NDIR) analyser was used. This unit
has the following ranges:
CO

010 vol%

CO2

020 vol%

HC

010 000 ppm

O2

025 vol%

The unit has a 2 per cent accuracy, 2 per cent

repeatability and a response time of less than 10 s. For
the O2 measurement a galvanic-type cell is used with a
response time of less than 25 s. These delays are caused
not only by the actual sensors but also by the time
required for the exhaust gas to reach the sensing area via
the connecting tubes and lters. The analyser was calibrated using a gas mixture provided by HORIBA. The
HC exhaust gas concentration calibration was based on
n-hexane (n-C6H14).
For data collection during driving, the data logger
CR10 made by Cambell was interfaced with a IBM-486
laptop via an analog to RS-232C interface card. This
particular measuring system and software completed a
scanning cycle approximately every 1 s. This measuring
system is adequate for the present purposes in view of
the large response time of the chemical sensors.
The catalyst outletinlet temperature dierence signal
was also fed to a microprocessor-controlled catalyst
eciency assessment system designed and built around
the Motorola 68HC11e2 microcontroller. The results of
the catalyst assessment system will be presented in a
later section of this paper.

EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS

The main goal of the tests was to obtain a correlation of

outletinlet temperature dierence data with the corresponding exhaust gas analysis data obtained under
normal driving conditions for catalysts of dierent
catalytic eciencies. Normally, the proper procedures
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for exhaust emission evaluation during driving tests are

the well-known bag tests which use either the FTP 75 or
the ECE 15 test cycles. These cycles are performed in the
laboratory using appropriate power brakes that can
simulate the actual driving conditions dictated by
vehicle acceleration, wind drag, etc. In this way the
average exhaust emissions of HC and CO per mile or
kilometre can be determined. Since these facilities were
not available in our laboratory, the simpler ECE 15 test
was chosen to be performed under actual driving
conditions. For this purpose an alternative manual
procedure was devised using computer-controlled sound
signals that helped the driver make the necessary speed
changes. This approximate manual simulation of the
ECE 15 test driving schedule for six consecutive cycles is
illustrated and presented in reference [14].
The measurements presented in this section are six
typical consecutive ECE tests. Several series of similar
tests were carried out at various ambient temperatures.
The corresponding results with respect to the average
values of
T for the old and the new catalyst are presented in Tables 2 and 3.
From the results of Tables 2 and 3 it can be concluded
that the catalyst outletinlet temperature dierence is
dependent on the ambient temperature. It appears that
higher ambient temperatures generate higher outlet
inlet temperature dierences by a linear mechanism.
This eect is illustrated in Figs 2 and 3 for the old and

Table 2 Old catalyst average values

during six-cycle ECE 15
tests
Ambient temperature
( C)

Outletinlet
T
( C)

24
18
16.5
13.9
12.5
10
8
6.6]

69.9
63.1
61.1
57.9
55
51
47.8
46.22

Table 3 New catalyst average values

during six-cycle ECE 15
tests
Ambient temperature
( C)

Outletinlet
T
( C)

20.8
20.5
20.5
13.5
12.5
12
10
9.3

72.9
73.7
72.12
63.5
61.94
62.5
60.65
56.37
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Fig. 2
T

Ta for an old catalyst

new catalyst respectively, and may be related to the

catalyst eciency increase at higher temperatures.
The dependence of catalyst outletinlet temperature
dierence
T to ambient temperature Ta is related to
catalyst age. In the case of the old catalyst the corresponding linear approximate relation between
T and
Ta is

T 1:4Ta 37:2

In the case of the new catalyst the corresponding linear

approximate relation between
T and Ta is

T 1:31Ta 45:9

These equations indicate that there is a greater

Fig. 3
Proc Instn Mech Engrs Vol 214 Part D

T

improvement in
T with increasing ambient temperature for the new catalyst.

From equations (1) and (2) it follows that the general
relation connecting the ambient temperature Ta and the
outletinlet temperature dierence at this temperature
has the following format:

Ta aTa b

where
a; b constants (experimentally calculated for each
converter type)
Ta ambient temperature

Ta temperature dierence at this ambient temperature

Ta for a new catalyst

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AMBIENT TEMPERATURE INFLUENCE ON CATALYTIC OUTLETINLET TEMPERATURE DIFFERENCE

It can be seen that, for dierent ambient temperatures,

i.e. Ta and Tb, the relative temperature outletinlet
dierences
Ta and
Tb are connected by an equation
of the form

Ta

Tb aTa

Tb

Tb

or

Tb
Ta

aTa

Equation (5) gives the outletinlet temperature dierence of a catalyst at an arbitrary Tb ambient temperature if this quantity is known at a reference ambient
temperature T. The constant a may be estimated
experimentally for each catalyst type.
4

CATALYST ASSESSMENT

According to the experimental results presented in the

previous sections, there is a correlation between catalytic
converter eciency and ambient temperature. This
correlation was not included in the catalytic converter
eciency evaluation algorithm presented in an earlier
paper by the present authors [14], where the eciency
inspection was based exclusively on the outletinlet
temperature dierence.
By measuring the ambient temperature Tb and
applying equation (5) twice for the calculation of
Tmax
and
Tmin for the measured ambient temperature Tb
using stored reference ambient temperature Ta, a new
algorithm for the catalytic converter eciency monitoring is created. According to this algorithm, the converter is classied into three possible stages: A new, B
adequate and C old. Thus:
If
T <
Tmin then catalyst eciency condition is
C (old)
or
If
Tmin <
T <
Tmax then catalyst eciency
condition is B (adequate)
or
If
Tmax <
T then catalyst eciency condition is
A (new)
Specically, based on equation (5),
Tmax and
Tmin
could be weighed, where
Tmax
T (new catalyst)
and
Tmin
T (old) for the Tb ambient temperature.
Equation (5) is applied twice:

Tbmax
Tan

an Ta

Tb

for the new converter and

Tbmin
Tao

ao Ta

Tb

for the old converter. Here

Ta reference ambient temperature stored in the
assessment device
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Tan temperature dierence for the new catalyst at

ambient temperature Ta

Tao temperature dierence for the old catalyst at
ambient temperature Ta
an 1:4 [from equation (2)]
ao 1:3 [from equation (1)]
If Ta 12:5  C, then, from equations (1) and (2),

Tao 55  C and
Tan 62  C respectively, stored in
the assessment device.
It should be noted that the above values were derived
through experimental results on the three-way catalyst
laboratory vehicle [14]. Temperature dierences
Tmax
and
Tmin for ambient temperature Tb are calculated on
the basis of equation (5). If, for example, Tb 20  C,
measured by the on-board diagnostic assessment device,
then from equation (5)

Tbmax 72:5  C

Tbmin 64:8  C
The average outletinlet temperature dierence
T is
compared with the above calculated value limits. The
result of this comparison corresponds to the catalytic
eciency state displayed in the diagnostic assessment
LCD display. As an example of the monitoring function, Table 4 illustrates the states of catalyst eciency
for two kinds of catalyst during the series of characteristic drive tests presented in Tables 2 and 3.
In condition A the catalyst assessment system was
calibrated to correspond to the emission levels of the
new catalyst, in condition C the catalyst assessment
system was calibrated to correspond to the emission
levels of the old catalyst and nally condition B corresponds to a catalyst with adequate performance. Condition B is useful as a warning to alert the driver to the
deteriorating condition of the catalyst. The assessment
system was adjusted to refresh its output every 300 s.
The results show satisfactory performance of the system

Table 4 States of catalyst eciency for the old and

the new catalyst (300 s
sampling period)
Old catalyst

New catalyst

C
C

A
A
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P N BOTSARIS AND P D SPARIS

and excellent repeatability compared with the previous

performance [14].

CONCLUSION

Experimental results indicate that the catalyst outlet

inlet temperature dierence is inuenced by the ambient
temperature. An analysis of the data indicates that a
linear relationship exists between the temperature dierence and the ambient temperature. To monitor
the exhaust emissions, the catalyst outletinlet temperature dierence and the ambient temperature, an
appropriate data logging system was also developed and
installed.
According to the experimental results obtained during
this research, as the ambient temperature increases or
decreases, the outletinlet temperature dierence of the
catalyst also increases or decreases. An increase or
decrease in the ambient temperature is accompanied
with an increase or decrease in catalyst average
eciency. The improvement, or otherwise, in catalyst
eciency owing to the ambient temperature eect is
stronger for a new catalyst than for an older catalyst.
The present paper describes this relationship and an
algorithm that takes this into account for diagnostic
monitoring of catalyst performance. The results of the
driving tests performed are illustrated and discussed.
Also, by measuring the ambient temperature Tb and
applying equation (5) twice for the calculation of
Tmax
and
Tmin using the stored reference ambient
temperature Ta, a new algorithm for catalytic converter
eciency monitoring is created. According to this
algorithm, the converter is classied into three possible
stages: A new, B adequate and C old. The result of
this comparison is presented on an LCD display. The
system in its current form is a quality indicator of
catalyst performance. Further research is being conducted to improve the system, and results thus far are
promising.

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