Physico-chemical models designed to represent experimental reality may prove to be inadequate. This is the case of nitrogen oxide trap, used as an application support of our thesis, which is a catalyst system treating the emissions of the diesel engine. The outputs are the curves of concentrations of pollutants, which are functional data, depending on scalar initial concentrations.The initial objective of this thesis is to propose experiental design that are meaningful to the user. However, the experimental design relying on models, most of the work has led us to propose a statistical representation taking into account the expert knowledge, and allows to build this plan.Three lines of research were explored. We first considered a non-functional modeling with the use of kriging theory. Then, we took into account the functional dimension of the responses, with the application and extension of varying coefficent models. Finally, starting again from the original model, we developped a model depending on the kinetic parameters of the inputs (scalar) using a nonparametric representation.To compare the methods, it was necessary to conduct an experimental campaign, and we propose an exploratory design approach, based on maximum entropy.
