APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR MONITORING REGENERATION FREQUENCY OF A VEHICLE PARTICULATE FILTER

A vehicle includes an engine, a regenerable exhaust stream particulate filter, and a host machine. The host machine has a pair of soot models providing respective actual and modeled soot mass values for the soot contained in the particulate filter, calculates a ratio of a change in the actual and modeled soot masses, and executes a control action when the ratio exceeds a calibrated threshold. A diagnostic code and/or activation of an indicator device may be part of the control action. A system includes the particulate filter and host machine noted above. A method for use aboard the vehicle includes determining the actual and modeled soot mass values using first and second soot models, respectively, calculating a ratio of a change in the actual and modeled soot mass, comparing the ratio to a calibrated threshold, and executing a control action when the ratio exceeds the threshold.