Demands placed on a modern internal combustion engine, with respect to a reduction of fuel consumed and of exhaust gases and pollutants emitted, are ever increasing. For this reason, it is necessary to further improve the metering of fuel into the combustion chamber of the internal combustion engine, particularly to determine even more precisely the fuel mass to be metered. For this reason, in conventional internal combustion engines, the mass flow of the air fed to the combustion chamber through the throttle is determined with the help of an air mass sensor, for example, an HFM sensor. The mass flow determined in such manner is then used to calculate the appropriate fuel mass to be injected which would be required to achieve the driving condition desired by the driver of the vehicle, for example an acceleration of the vehicle.
In particular, for further reduction of the emitted exhaust gases, modern internal combustion engines are provided with an exhaust gas recirculation, in which the exhaust gas emitted from the combustion chamber is recirculated again through a valve to the intake pipe and thus ultimately to the combustion chamber. This exhaust gas recirculation must be taken into account in determining the fuel mass to be injected.