Combustible Mixture Stratification Means Patents (Class 123/295)
  • Patent number: 11639699
    Abstract: An engine system is provided, which includes a vehicle-mounted engine having an injector, a spark plug, and a property adjusting device, an accelerator opening sensor, and a controller. The controller performs a combustion control for controlling the injector, the spark plug, and the property adjusting device so that a target torque set based on a present accelerator opening detected by the accelerator opening sensor is outputted in a specific cycle in the future from a present time by a given delay time. In the combustion control, the controller sets a target load of the engine in the specific cycle based on the present accelerator opening, and sets a combustion transition from the present cycle to the specific cycle by selecting beforehand combustion from the present cycle to the specific cycle, from flame propagation combustion and compressed self-ignition combustion, based on the set target load.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 12, 2022
    Date of Patent: May 2, 2023
    Assignee: Mazda Motor Corporation
    Inventors: Takuma Fujii, Takayuki Hikita, Saori Mizuno, Mitsuhiro Muto
  • Patent number: 11629671
    Abstract: An engine system includes a combustion chamber and an air supplier. The combustion chamber is formed in a cylinder. The air supplier is configured to supply air to a circumferential area of the combustion chamber. The circumferential area is near an inner circumferential surface of the cylinder. The air supplier is configured to supply air to the circumferential area before ignition to gather a rich air-fuel mixture that is present in the combustion chamber to a central area of the combustion chamber such that a stratified body consisting of a layer of the air-fuel mixture in the central area and a layer of the air in the circumferential area is formed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 11, 2022
    Date of Patent: April 18, 2023
    Assignee: SUBARU CORPORATION
    Inventors: Kouhei Toma, Takeshi Tsuda, Ryo Adachi
  • Patent number: 11506139
    Abstract: The present disclosure envisages an engine control system (100) that enables multi-mode drivability in off-road vehicles. The system (100) comprises a mode selection device (101) and an electronic control unit (ECU) (104). The mode selection device (101) is configured to receive an input from an operator for selection of at least one mode of engine operation, and to generate a mode selection signal corresponding to the input. The electronic control unit (ECU) (104) is communicatively coupled with the mode selection device (101) to receive the mode selection signal and generate at least one control signal. The electronic control unit (ECU) (104) is further configured to control a fuel injection system (106) of the vehicle based on the selected mode according to the load requirement, thereby facilitating multi-mode drivability. The system (100) allows a vehicle to operate in different operating modes as per terrain conditions.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 30, 2021
    Date of Patent: November 22, 2022
    Assignee: MAHINDRA AND MAHINDRA
    Inventors: Subramani Kannan, Haldorai Rajan, Ayyapa Das, Sridhar Rao, Balasubramanian Prabakaran, Natesh Kumar, Ganesan Manoj, Joel Jason
  • Patent number: 11492993
    Abstract: An engine system is provided, which includes an engine, a swirl control valve, an EGR passage, an EGR gas adjusting mechanism, and a controller. The engine includes a cylinder, a piston, and a fuel injection valve. The swirl control valve is provided inside an intake passage and generates a swirl flow inside the cylinder when it closes. When an engine load is at or below a given threshold, the controller controls the swirl control valve to close. While the engine load is the threshold or below, the controller controls the EGR gas adjusting mechanism such that, at a fixed engine speed, an increase rate of an EGR gas amount with respect to an increase in the engine load is lower in a first load range than in a second load range, the first load range being on a higher load side of the second load range and including the threshold.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 2, 2022
    Date of Patent: November 8, 2022
    Assignee: Mazda Motor Corporation
    Inventors: Yusuke Oda, Naoki Mine, Tomomi Watanabe, Atsushi Suzuki, Junsou Sasaki
  • Patent number: 11492960
    Abstract: An engine including an exhaust bypass valve and an intake bypass valve. The exhaust bypass valve is disposed in an exhaust bypass channel connecting an outlet of an exhaust manifold and an exhaust outlet of a turbocharger to each other. The intake bypass valve is disposed in an intake bypass channel connecting an inlet of an intake manifold and an inlet of the turbocharger. An intake pressure sensor detects a pressure of the intake manifold. If an instruction value indicating an upper limit or a lower limit of the valve opening degree of the intake bypass valve is continuously output for a predetermined time or more, an engine control device determines that an abnormality occurs in at least one of the exhaust bypass valve and the intake bypass valve.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 30, 2021
    Date of Patent: November 8, 2022
    Assignee: Yanmar Power Technology Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Taishi Murakami, Masayoshi Doui
  • Patent number: 11441497
    Abstract: During a transient period, the opening degree of a throttle valve (throttle opening degree) is varied from a steady-period target throttle opening degree in a region A1 toward a valve closing side by a predetermined amount ?P, and is thereafter controlled so as to become a steady-period target throttle opening degree in the region A1. The transient period is a transient period in which the operation state is shifted from a region B2 in which an air-fuel ratio in a supercharged state becomes a predetermined lean air-fuel ratio to a region A1 in which the air-fuel ratio in a non-supercharged state becomes a predetermined rich air-fuel ratio richer than the lean air-fuel ratio. In this transient period, by reducing the air amount in a cylinder, the combustion torque of an internal combustion engine is suppressed, and consequently; a torque overshoot can be suppressed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 23, 2018
    Date of Patent: September 13, 2022
    Assignee: NISSAN MOTOR CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Kengo Yonekura, Hirofumi Tsuchida
  • Patent number: 11421623
    Abstract: An ECU causes an injector to implement multiple split injections during a combustion cycle and to implement a final split injection among the split injections in the latter half of the compression stroke. The ECU further sets a time interval between the injection timing for the final split injection and the ignition timing of an ignition plug at a constant time in a region in which the fuel pressure is the same. Then, the ECU sets a crank angle position based on the time interval and a rotational speed of an output shaft.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 14, 2020
    Date of Patent: August 23, 2022
    Assignee: DENSO CORPORATION
    Inventor: Masatake Wada
  • Patent number: 11415068
    Abstract: A system includes a temperature sensor configured to measure a temperature of exhaust gas produced by an engine, and a boost error module configured to determine a boost error of the engine. The system further includes a combustion control module configured to select at least one of a target boost pressure of the engine, a target EGR flow rate of the engine, and a target fuel injection parameter of the engine from a first set of target values when the exhaust gas temperature is less than a predetermined temperature and the boost error is less than a predetermined value, and to select the at least one of the target boost pressure, the target EGR flow rate, and the target fuel injection parameter from a second set of target values when the exhaust gas temperature is less than the predetermined temperature and the boost error is greater than the predetermined value.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 13, 2019
    Date of Patent: August 16, 2022
    Assignee: GM GLOBAL TECHNOLOGY OPERATIONS LLC
    Inventors: Umberto Ferrara, Filippo Lachina, Gianmaria Manassero, Domenico Maccarrone, Claudio Cortassa, Marco Cibella
  • Patent number: 11408367
    Abstract: An internal combustion engine includes: a piston guided by a cylinder to reciprocate along a cylinder axis and forming a combustion chamber with a crown surface facing a cylinder head; and a fuel injection valve having an injection port facing the combustion chamber and injecting fuel to a forward tumble flow in the combustion chamber. A ridge formed on the crown surface rises toward a ceiling surface side relative to a reference plane, orthogonal to the cylinder axis and including an outer peripheral edge of the crown surface, and has a ridge line formed by a curved surface to surround a recessed part. The recessed part is recessed toward a center of the crown surface in a direction orthogonal to a virtual plane including the cylinder axis and parallel to a rotation axis of a crankshaft, and is recessed toward the center in an axial direction of the crankshaft.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 19, 2020
    Date of Patent: August 9, 2022
    Assignee: Honda Motor Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Shogo Matsumoto, Nobuyuki Akaishi, Suguru Fukuda
  • Patent number: 11384704
    Abstract: An injection control device includes: a conversion coefficient setter setting a conversion coefficient for each injection when a fuel injection valve is driven by an electric current to inject fuel from the fuel injection valve; and an area correction unit calculating an energization time correction amount by performing area correction using the conversion coefficient for each injection regardless of whether a drive current of the fuel injection valve has reached a target peak current or not.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 26, 2021
    Date of Patent: July 12, 2022
    Assignee: DENSO CORPORATION
    Inventors: Yohei Suganuma, Ryohei Takahashi, Hiroyuki Fukuda, Masashi Inaba
  • Patent number: 11313269
    Abstract: The invention is provided with an ignition control section and an injection control section. When partial compression ignition combustion is carried out, the ignition control section causes an ignition plug to carry out: main ignition in which a spark is generated in a late period of a compression stroke or an initial period of an expansion stroke to initiate SI combustion; and preceding ignition in which the spark is generated at earlier timing than the main ignition. Also, when the partial compression ignition combustion is carried out, the injection control section causes an injector to inject fuel at such timing that the fuel exists in a cylinder at an earlier time point than the preceding ignition. Timing of the preceding ignition is set to be more retarded when an engine speed is high than when the engine speed is low.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 17, 2019
    Date of Patent: April 26, 2022
    Assignee: Mazda Motor Corporation
    Inventors: Kota Matsumoto, Tomonori Urushihara, Keiji Maruyama, Masanari Sueoka, Ryohei Ono, Yuji Harada, Toru Miyamoto, Atsushi Inoue, Tatsuhiro Tokunaga, Takuya Ohura, Yusuke Kawai, Tomohiro Nishida, Keita Arai, Yodai Yamaguchi
  • Patent number: 11285937
    Abstract: A catalyst warm-up control method for a hybrid vehicle supplies electric power to an electric motor by a battery, to charge the battery by a power generation engine, and to treat exhaust gas from the engine with a catalyst, the hybrid vehicle selecting a manner mode in which power generation using the engine is stopped. The catalyst warm-up control method performs catalyst warm-up control such that when the temperature of the catalyst becomes lower than a normal threshold temperature for activating the catalyst, the target rotation speed of the engine is controlled to a first warm-up required rotation speed at which the catalyst can be heated to a temperature that is higher than the normal threshold temperature. When the manner mode is selected, control is performed when temperature of the catalyst becomes lower than a manner mode threshold temperature that is equal to or less than the normal threshold temperature.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 15, 2017
    Date of Patent: March 29, 2022
    Assignee: Nissan Motor Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Shinsuke Higuchi, Hidekatsu Akiyama, Azusa Kobayashi, Keisuke Kawai, Takashi Kamijo, Tsuyoshi Ishikawa
  • Patent number: 11248555
    Abstract: As a control method for internal combustion engine, a part of a low-medium revolution speed/low-medium load region of an internal combustion engine is set as a lean combustion region, homogeneous combustion is performed in an operating region within the lean combustion region where a load is relatively low, by injecting fuel at least once between an intake stroke and the first half of a compression stroke to form a homogeneous air-fuel mixture in a combustion chamber, and stratified combustion is performed in an operating region within the lean combustion region where the load is relatively high, by injecting the fuel at least once, respectively, between the intake stroke and the first half of the compression stroke as well as in the second half of the compression stroke to form a stratified air-fuel mixture in the combustion chamber.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 24, 2017
    Date of Patent: February 15, 2022
    Assignee: NISSAN MOTOR CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Hirofumi Maeda, Masaharu Kassai
  • Patent number: 11230982
    Abstract: A method is provided for operating an internal combustion piston engine, including introducing air into a cylinder of the engine, compressing the air in a first compression stroke of the cylinder, providing fuel into the cylinder for a first combustion, with a portion of the oxygen in the compressed air as oxidant, in a first power stroke succeeding the first compression stroke, to produce residues including oxygen, compressing the residues in a second compression stroke succeeding the first power stroke, and providing, after the first combustion, fuel into the cylinder for a second combustion, with at least a portion of the oxygen of the residues as oxidant, in a second power stroke succeeding the second compression stroke, wherein the first compression stroke is repealed immediately after the second power stroke, and the introduction of air into the cylinder is done at the end of the second power stroke and/or at the beginning of the first compression stroke.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 9, 2017
    Date of Patent: January 25, 2022
    Assignee: VOLVO TRUCK CORPORATION
    Inventor: Staffan Lundgren
  • Patent number: 11187179
    Abstract: A control apparatus for a compression-ignition type engine is applied to an engine capable of carrying out partial compression ignition combustion. When the partial compression ignition combustion is carried out, an ignition control section of the control apparatus causes an ignition plug to carry out: main ignition in which a spark is generated to initiate the SI combustion; and preceding ignition in which the spark is generated at an earlier time point than the main ignition. An injection control section causes the ignition plug to inject fuel in an intake stroke. The ignition control section sets energy of the preceding ignition to be lower than energy of the main ignition and causes the ignition plug to carry out the preceding ignition after the fuel injection in the intake stroke or an early period or a middle period of a compression stroke.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 19, 2019
    Date of Patent: November 30, 2021
    Assignee: Mazda Motor Corporation
    Inventors: Kota Matsumoto, Tomonori Urushihara, Keiji Maruyama, Masanari Sueoka, Ryohei Ono, Yuji Harada, Toru Miyamoto, Atsushi Inoue, Tatsuhiro Tokunaga, Takuya Ohura, Yusuke Kawai, Tomohiro Nishida, Keita Arai, Yodai Yamaguchi
  • Patent number: 11168625
    Abstract: Fuel management system for enhanced operation of a spark ignition gasoline engine. Injectors inject an anti-knock agent such as ethanol directly into a cylinder. It is preferred that the direct injection occur after the inlet valve is closed. It is also preferred that stoichiometric operation with a three way catalyst be used to minimize emissions. In addition, it is also preferred that the anti-knock agents have a heat of vaporization per unit of combustion energy that is at least three times that of gasoline.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 30, 2021
    Date of Patent: November 9, 2021
    Assignee: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
    Inventors: Leslie Bromberg, Daniel R. Cohn, John B. Heywood
  • Patent number: 11162452
    Abstract: An internal combustion engine control apparatus including an electronic control unit having a microprocessor and a memory. The microprocessor is configured to perform switching an injection mode between a first injection mode in which the fuel is injected in a range including an intake stroke and a compression stroke of an internal combustion engine and a second injection mode in which the fuel is injected in the range so that an injection frequency in the compression stroke in the second injection mode is greater than an injection frequency in the compression stroke in the first injection mode; and determining whether the injection mode needs to be switched based on an ignition timing of the ignitor.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 29, 2021
    Date of Patent: November 2, 2021
    Assignee: Honda Motor Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Hidekazu Hironobu, Daiki Yamazaki, Masatoshi Nakajima, Nobuaki Ito, Ryuichi Hata, Hiroaki Tone
  • Patent number: 11125203
    Abstract: An ignition control system and method for an engine having a two-step variable valve lift (VVL) system utilizes an ignition control system comprising a plurality of spark plugs each configured to generate one or more ignition strikes during a combustion event in a respective cylinder of the engine and a controller configured to detect a low-to-high or high-to-low lift mode transition of the VVL system and, in response to detecting the low-to-high or high-to-low lift mode transition of the VVL system, command the ignition control system to perform multi-strike ignition for at least one combustion event, wherein commanding the multi-strike ignition mitigates or eliminates at least one of engine torque variations and increased engine emissions resulting from poor combustion quality caused by residual exhaust components within the cylinder from a previous combustion event prior to the low-to-high or high-to-low lift mode transition of the VVL system.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 13, 2020
    Date of Patent: September 21, 2021
    Assignee: FCA US LLC
    Inventors: William P Attard, Nikhil Patil, Tyler Tutton
  • Patent number: 11125172
    Abstract: According to one or more embodiments, an internal combustion engine may be operated by a method which includes one or more of passing a first fuel and a second fuel into an engine cylinder to form a fuel mixture, and combusting the fuel mixture with a spark plug to translate a piston housed in the engine cylinder and rotate a crank shaft coupled to the piston. The first fuel may comprise a greater octane rating than the second fuel. A target CA50 may correspond to a minimum in specific fuel consumption of the fuel mixture. The spark plug may initiate combustion at a time such that the internal combustion engine operates with an operational CA50 that is within 20 degrees of the target CA50.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 27, 2020
    Date of Patent: September 21, 2021
    Assignee: Saudi Arabian Oil Company
    Inventors: Kai James Morganti, Yoann Viollet, Robert Andrew Head
  • Patent number: 11118527
    Abstract: A control unit controls a combustion state of an internal combustion engine in accordance with a drive torque requested by a driver. The control unit performs a switching control to switch at least a combustion state between lean-burn combustion and stoichiometric combustion. A monitor unit performs torque monitoring to determine abnormality of a request torque, which is requested to the internal combustion engine, and a generated torque of the internal combustion engine based on the request torque and an estimation torque, which is an estimation value of an actual torque of the internal combustion engine. A combustion state determining unit determines whether the combustion state in the control unit is the lean-burn combustion or the stoichiometric combustion. A computing unit computes the estimation torque in accordance with the combustion state determined by the combustion state determining unit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 24, 2020
    Date of Patent: September 14, 2021
    Assignee: DENSO CORPORATION
    Inventor: Masato Nodera
  • Patent number: 11041457
    Abstract: A structure of a combustion chamber for an engine includes: a crown surface of a piston; a combustion chamber ceiling surface formed on a cylinder head; and an ignition plug mounted on the combustion chamber ceiling surface, and including an ignition portion disposed in such a way as to face the combustion chamber. The crown surface of the piston includes a cavity which is recessed in a cylinder axis direction in a region including a position below the ignition portion of the ignition plug in a plan view from the cylinder axis direction. A rim portion of the cavity includes a guide portion, raised in the cylinder axis direction with respect to an inner region of the rim portion, interposing the ignition portion when the piston is at a compression top dead center, and configured to guide an air-fuel mixture within the combustion chamber to the ignition portion.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 31, 2018
    Date of Patent: June 22, 2021
    Assignee: MAZDA MOTOR CORPORATION
    Inventors: Satoshi Imamura, Masaki Fukuma, Yasushi Nakahara, Atsushi Inoue, Kota Matsumoto, Yoshiharu Ueki, Michiharu Kawano, Yuya Honda, Kento Onishi
  • Patent number: 11035323
    Abstract: An active purge system may include: a canister to collect therein an evaporation gas evaporated from a fuel tank; a purge line to connect the canister to an intake pipe; a purge pump to pressurize the evaporation gas to allow the evaporation gas to move from the canister to the intake pipe; a purge valve installed on the purge line to be located between the purge pump and the intake pipe; and an engine connected to the intake pipe. In particular, the engine includes an injector installed on a cylinder head, an intake valve, and an exhaust valve.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 9, 2020
    Date of Patent: June 15, 2021
    Assignees: HYUNDAI MOTOR COMPANY, KIA MOTORS CORPORATION
    Inventors: Young-Kyu Oh, Keum-Jin Park, Se-Geun Kim
  • Patent number: 11008970
    Abstract: A control device for controlling an engine provided with a fuel pump including a pressurizing chamber, a plunger inserted into the pressurizing chamber and which changes a volume of the pressurizing chamber, and an on-off valve configured to open and close a suction port, is provided. When a pressurizing cycle consists of a period of pressurizing stroke in which the volume of the pressurizing chamber is reduced to allow fuel to be pressurized and a period of suction stroke in which the volume of the pressurizing chamber is increased to allow fuel to be drawn into the pressurizing chamber, a closing cycle of the on-off valve is controlled so that a ratio of the closing cycle to the pressurizing cycle becomes smaller in a second combustion mode where a partial compression-ignition combustion is performed than in a first combustion mode where SI combustion is performed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 7, 2020
    Date of Patent: May 18, 2021
    Assignee: Mazda Motor Corporation
    Inventors: Masami Nishida, Toru Miyamae, Shigeki Yamashita, Kazuhiro Takemoto, Michio Ito, Kazuhiro Nishimura, Yusuke Kawai, Tetsuya Chikada, Tatsuhiro Tokunaga
  • Patent number: 11008953
    Abstract: Systems, apparatus, and methods are disclosed that include a divided exhaust engine with at least one primary exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) cylinder and a plurality of non-primary EGR cylinders. The systems, apparatus and methods control the EGR fraction by deactivation of one or more of the cylinders.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 10, 2019
    Date of Patent: May 18, 2021
    Assignee: Cummins Inc.
    Inventors: Akash S. Desai, David J. Langenderfer
  • Patent number: 10997804
    Abstract: A method and diagnostic tool diagnoses a charge cycle behavior of an internal combustion engine with a plurality of cylinders. The method determines a diagnosis time window within a torque dropout of one of the cycles of the internal combustion engine, and associates a deviation type with the diagnosis time window determined.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 15, 2019
    Date of Patent: May 4, 2021
    Assignee: Bayerische Motoren Werke Aktiengesellschaft
    Inventors: Sebastian Grasreiner, Florian Hartl, Christian Kuklinski
  • Patent number: 10989147
    Abstract: An air-fuel ratio control method reflecting a brake booster inflow flow rate includes: determining a deviation between an actually measured pressure of an intake manifold and a model pressure of the intake manifold is equal to or greater than a predetermined value; determining that the deviation is caused by a brake operation; correcting an intake air amount by reflecting a flow rate flowing into the intake manifold from a brake booster; and performing an air-fuel ratio control based on the corrected intake air amount.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 3, 2019
    Date of Patent: April 27, 2021
    Assignees: HYUNDAI MOTOR COMPANY, KIA MOTORS CORPORATION
    Inventor: Min-Kyu Won
  • Patent number: 10982628
    Abstract: A controller for an internal combustion engine including a plurality of cylinders, a fuel injection valve for supplying a fuel to each cylinder, an EGR passage connecting an exhaust passage and an intake passage, and an EGR valve adjusting a flow rate of exhaust flowing into the intake passage from the exhaust passage via the EGR passage, the controller includes an electronic control unit. The electronic control unit is configured to execute determination processing for determining that a degree of an imbalance abnormality is larger when a torque fluctuation amount is relatively large than when the torque fluctuation amount is relatively small.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 10, 2018
    Date of Patent: April 20, 2021
    Assignee: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Keisuke Nagakura, Kuniyuki Sasaki
  • Patent number: 10961943
    Abstract: A method and a system for controlling combustion of a natural gas engine. The method includes: determining, based on a current operation parameter of a natural gas engine, an operation state of the natural gas engine, and calculating a total injection quantity of natural gas and pilot diesel required by the natural gas engine in the operation state; adopting a direct injection diffusion-combustion mode in a case that the operation state is an idle state or a low load state; adopting a natural gas homogeneous hybrid active control compression-ignition mode in a case that the operation state is a medium load state; configuring the total injection quantity into three parts including a compression-ignition natural gas injection quantity, a pilot diesel injection quantity, and a diffusion-combustion natural gas injection quantity in a case that the operation state is a high load state, and sequentially injecting them into a combustion chamber.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 9, 2020
    Date of Patent: March 30, 2021
    Assignee: WEICHAI POWER CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Xuguang Tan, Dehui Tong, Xiaoyan Wang, Zhijie Li, Xiaoying Xu, Qiang Zhang, Guoxiang Li
  • Patent number: 10934956
    Abstract: A method for controlling an internal combustion engine is provided, which includes defining a first area in which the engine operates in a stoichiometric combustion mode and a second area in which the engine operates in a lean combustion mode, on an operation map defined by the engine load and speed, and causing a controller to determine that an operation point on the operation map shifts from the first area to the second area based on signals from an accelerator opening sensor and a crank angle sensor, predict a length of time that the operation point stays in the second area, switch a combustion mode to the lean combustion mode when the predicted time is longer than a given period of time, and maintain the stoichiometric combustion mode when the predicted time is shorter than the given period of time.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 6, 2020
    Date of Patent: March 2, 2021
    Assignee: Mazda Motor Corporation
    Inventors: Taiga Kamiji, Takuo Hirano, Chikako Ohisa, Yoshiaki Aritome
  • Patent number: 10934947
    Abstract: A control device for an engine includes a valve-stopping mechanism 14b which holds intake and exhaust valves 41, 51 of the first and the fourth cylinders (idle cylinders) of four cylinders in closed states, a throttle valve control unit 115, an ignition period control unit 113, and an ECU 110 which controls the valve-stopping mechanism 14b, the throttle valve control unit 115, and the ignition period control unit 113. The ECU 110 sets a retard amount of the ignition period of the idle cylinder behind the basic ignition period at least in starting the all-cylinder operation in accordance with an amount of burned gas existing in the idle cylinder in switching to the all-cylinder operation from the reduced-cylinder operation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 19, 2018
    Date of Patent: March 2, 2021
    Assignee: MAZDA MOTOR CORPORATION
    Inventors: Takano Nakai, Takaya Okugawa, Souichirou Chabata, Takafumi Nishio
  • Patent number: 10895217
    Abstract: Provided is a control apparatus for an internal combustion engine which can achieve required torque and avoid the risk of an accidental fire even in the case where an error occurs in final injection termination timing. A microcomputer calculates T902 which has been further advanced from T106 which precedes ignition timing by time required for vaporization of fuel injected into a cylinder of an internal combustion engine. The microcomputer determines whether final injection termination timing (T903) comes after T106 or T902. When it has been determined that final injection termination timing (T1204) comes after T106 or T902, the microcomputer controls an injector or an ignition device so as to secure time for vaporization of the fuel injected into the cylinder of the internal combustion engine while satisfying a fuel injection amount required in one combustion cycle.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 19, 2017
    Date of Patent: January 19, 2021
    Assignee: HITACHI AUTOMOTIVE SYSTEMS, LTD.
    Inventors: Osamu Mukaihara, Masahiro Toyohara, Shigeyuki Yufu
  • Patent number: 10890155
    Abstract: In a control method for internal combustion engine for forming a stratified air-fuel mixture in a combustion chamber and performing stratified combustion by injecting fuel at least once each time between an intake stroke and the first half of a compression stroke and in the second half of the compression stroke, spark ignition is started by flowing a relatively large discharge current into the ignition plug when flow energy around the ignition plug is increased by energy of a fuel spray injected in the second half of the compression stroke and, thereafter, the discharge current is made relatively smaller and discharged for a predetermined period.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 24, 2017
    Date of Patent: January 12, 2021
    Assignee: NISSAN MOTOR CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Hirofumi Maeda, Masaharu Kassai
  • Patent number: 10876492
    Abstract: Provided is a device for controlling a fuel injection device capable of suppressing deterioration of exhaust performance while ensuring driving performance when acceleration of a vehicle is requested during an intake stroke. Therefore, when the acceleration of a vehicle is requested during an intake stroke in one combustion cycle, an engine control unit 9 estimates an increase (acceleration intake air amount Qad) of the amount of air taken in a combustion chamber 19 of an internal combustion engine 1 associated with the acceleration of the vehicle after the acceleration of the vehicle is requested in one combustion cycle based on a lift amount of an intake valve 3. The engine control unit 9 controls a fuel injection valve 5 so as to increase a fuel injection amount in one combustion cycle according to the acceleration intake air amount Qad.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 12, 2017
    Date of Patent: December 29, 2020
    Assignee: Hitachi Automotive Systems, Ltd.
    Inventors: Tomoaki Horii, Tei Ho, Kazuya Saito
  • Patent number: 10859015
    Abstract: A control system for a compression ignition engine includes a combustion chamber, a throttle valve, an injector, an ignition plug, an EGR system, a sensor device and a controller. The controller includes a first mode module, a second mode module and a changing module configured to change an engine mode from a first mode to a second mode in response to a change demand. The changing module outputs signals to the throttle valve and the injector in response to the demand so that an air-fuel ratio of mixture gas becomes a stoichiometric air-fuel ratio or a substantially stoichiometric air-fuel ratio, and outputs a signal to the EGR system so that an EGR gas amount decreases more than before the demand, and when the EGR gas amount is determined to be decreased to a given amount, the changing module permits that the second mode module starts the second mode.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 25, 2019
    Date of Patent: December 8, 2020
    Assignee: Mazda Motor Corporation
    Inventors: Yuto Matsushima, Masayoshi Higashio, Yugou Sunagare, Shinji Takayama, Kenko Ujihara, Yuta Masuda
  • Patent number: 10837386
    Abstract: The exhaust purification system of an internal combustion engine has: exhaust purification catalysts 20, 24 arranged in an exhaust passage and able to store oxygen; and a control device 31 for calculating an EGR rate of intake gas supplied to combustion chambers 5 and for controlling an air-fuel ratio of the exhaust gas flowing into the catalysts. The control device alternately switches the air-fuel ratio between a rich air-fuel ratio and a lean air-fuel ratio, and controls the air-fuel ratio so that the air-fuel ratio is switched from the lean air-fuel ratio to the rich air-fuel ratio when the oxygen storage amount of the catalyst is greater, when the calculated EGR rate is relatively high, compared to when it is relatively low.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 31, 2018
    Date of Patent: November 17, 2020
    Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Kenji Inoshita
  • Patent number: 10823131
    Abstract: Operating a dual fuel engine system includes igniting a main charge of gaseous fuel in response to combustion of an early pilot shot of liquid fuel and production of a spark. Operating the system also includes covarying a spark timing parameter and a pilot shot delivery parameter, and reducing an error in a phasing of combustion of another main charge based on the covarying of the spark timing parameter and the pilot shot delivery parameter.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 28, 2019
    Date of Patent: November 3, 2020
    Assignee: Caterpillar Inc.
    Inventors: Bobby John, Jonathan Anders
  • Patent number: 10815916
    Abstract: A system and method is provided for the use of the ion current signal characteristics for onboard cycle-by-cycle, cylinder-by-cylinder measurement. The system may also control the engine operating parameters based on a predicted NOx emission level, CO emission level, CO2 emission level, O2 emission level, unburned hydrocarbon (HC) emission level, cylinder pressure, or a cylinder temperature measurement according to characteristics of the ion current signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 17, 2018
    Date of Patent: October 27, 2020
    Assignee: Wayne State University
    Inventors: Tamer H. Badawy, Fadi A. Estefanous, Naeim A. Henein
  • Patent number: 10815913
    Abstract: Systems, methods and apparatus for controlling operation of dual fuel engines are disclosed that regulate the fuelling amounts provided by a first fuel and a second fuel during operation of the engine. The first fuel can be a liquid fuel and the second fuel can be a gaseous fuel. The fuelling amounts are controlled to improve operational outcomes of the duel fuel engine.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 3, 2017
    Date of Patent: October 27, 2020
    Assignee: Cummins Inc.
    Inventors: C. Larry Bruner, Phanindra V. Garimella, Geomy George, Timothy P. Lutz, J. Steven Kolhouse, Edmund P. Hodzen, Robert Charles Borregard, Mark A. Rosswurm, Axel Otto zur Loye
  • Patent number: 10808601
    Abstract: An internal combustion engine includes a fuel injection nozzle provided with a nozzle hole for injecting fuel, the nozzle hole exposed from a cylinder head of the internal combustion engine to a combustion chamber, and a hollow duct, an inlet and an outlet of which are exposed to the combustion chamber. The duct is provided in a manner allowing fuel spray injected from the nozzle hole of the fuel injection nozzle to pass through from the inlet to the outlet. The fuel injection nozzle and the duct are configured such that a part of fuel spray that is injected in pilot injection that is performed before main injection directly adheres to an inner wall surface of the duct.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 7, 2019
    Date of Patent: October 20, 2020
    Assignee: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventor: Takeshi Hashizume
  • Patent number: 10801393
    Abstract: A control system for a compression ignition engine configured to start compression ignition combustion by igniting mixture gas formed by injecting fuel into combustion chambers is provided, which includes combustion chambers each defined in respective cylinders so that displacements of the combustion chambers change by respective pistons reciprocating, a throttle valve, ignition plugs, injectors, a sensor having measuring parts including an atmospheric-pressure detector configured to detect an atmospheric pressure, and configured to measure parameters related to operation of the engine, and a controller. The controller executes a lean compression ignition combustion control in which compression ignition combustion is performed at a given lean air-fuel ratio higher than a stoichiometric air-fuel ratio.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 28, 2019
    Date of Patent: October 13, 2020
    Assignee: Mazda Motor Corporation
    Inventors: Yuto Matsushima, Masayoshi Higashio, Yugou Sunagare, Shinji Takayama, Kenko Ujihara, Yuta Masuda
  • Patent number: 10801436
    Abstract: In a first region on a low load side of an operation region of a direct fuel injection engine, homogenous combustion is performed, while, in a second region of the operation region on a load side higher than the first region, stratified combustion is performed. In the stratified combustion, a fuel is dispersed in a cylinder by a first injection operation and a fuel is unevenly distributed in a vicinity of the ignition plug by a second injection operation. Shift control by the stratified combustion is executed at a time of shifting when an operation state of the engine has shifted from the first region to the second region, and in the shift control, a fuel in an amount larger than a target amount of the second injection operation in the second region is injected by the second injection operation and then, an injection amount of the second injection operation is decreased toward the target amount.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 15, 2017
    Date of Patent: October 13, 2020
    Assignee: NISSAN MOTOR CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Masaharu Kassai, Takayoshi Kodama
  • Patent number: 10800227
    Abstract: An air-conditioning control apparatus is mounted in a vehicle that is capable of unmanned travelling. The apparatus has a determining section and an output section. The determining section determines whether an occupant is in the vehicle and whether the vehicle is traveling. The output section performs an air-conditioning control including temperature adjusting using a radiator through heat exchange with air outside the vehicle. The output section performs the air-conditioning control when the vehicle is in an unmanned state and a travelling state, and refrains from performing the air-conditioning control when the vehicle is in the unmanned state and a stop state.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 5, 2019
    Date of Patent: October 13, 2020
    Assignee: DENSO CORPORATION
    Inventor: Koji Sakai
  • Patent number: 10794237
    Abstract: A control device has a VVT (variable valve timing) mechanism which changes opening or closing timing of at least one of an intake valve and an exhaust valve, and includes: a processor; a sensor for detecting atmospheric pressure; and a sensor for detecting the amount of air flowing through an intake air flow path. The processor calculates a charging efficiency based on the detected amount of air, calculates a volumetric efficiency from the detected amount of air and the detected atmospheric pressure, calculates the charging efficiency valve opening timing of the intake valve based on the charging efficiency, calculates the volumetric efficiency valve opening timing of the intake valve based on the volumetric efficiency, and sets the valve opening timing(s) of at least one of the intake valve and the exhaust valve based on one of the charging efficiency valve opening timing and the volumetric efficiency valve opening timing.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 25, 2019
    Date of Patent: October 6, 2020
    Assignee: MITSUBISHI JIDOSHA KOGYO KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Ryosuke Itano, Toshiyuki Miyata, Hitoshi Toda, Tsuyoshi Tadanaga
  • Patent number: 10794310
    Abstract: In some examples, a system including one or more processors may receive sensor data from one or more sensors indicating one or more engine parameters of an engine including a combustion chamber. Based on the sensor data, the system may determine a homogeneity index indicative of a homogeneity of an air-fuel mixture within the combustion chamber. Furthermore, the system may determine an estimated amount of NOx in the exhaust gas based at least in part on the homogeneity index. In addition, based at least partially on the estimated amount of NOx in the exhaust gas, the system may send an instruction to control an engine component.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 12, 2018
    Date of Patent: October 6, 2020
    Assignee: HITACHI AUTOMOTIVE SYSTEMS, LTD.
    Inventors: Zicheng Ge, Yahodeep Lonari, Kazuhiro Oryoji
  • Patent number: 10781760
    Abstract: Fuel management system for enhanced operation of a spark ignition gasoline engine. Injectors inject an anti-knock agent such as ethanol directly into a cylinder. It is preferred that the direct injection occur after the inlet valve is closed. It is also preferred that stoichiometric operation with a three way catalyst be used to minimize emissions. In addition, it is also preferred that the anti-knock agents have a heat of vaporization per unit of combustion energy that is at least three times that of gasoline.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 26, 2020
    Date of Patent: September 22, 2020
    Assignee: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
    Inventors: Leslie Bromberg, Daniel R. Cohn, John B. Heywood
  • Patent number: 10753267
    Abstract: Embodiments of apparatus are disclosed for affecting working fluid flow in a system that delivers material between two locations by carrying the material in the working fluid. For example, embodiments of the disclosed apparatus may be used in an internal combustion engines to carry fuel droplets to a combustion area using air as the working fluid. The apparatus may include a passage including a funnel portion and tumble area that direct working fluid into a stratified stream. The stratified stream may include an outer boundary flow having a toroidal and/or helical flow characteristic and an inner flow carrying injected material that is bound by the outer flow.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 25, 2019
    Date of Patent: August 25, 2020
    Inventors: Elario D. Dalmas, II, Brett J. Leathers
  • Patent number: 10718257
    Abstract: A method of operating a dual-fuel combustion system includes reciprocating a piston between a bottom dead center and a top dead center of a cylinder, the piston including a piston bowl, a circumferentially extending recess located radially outside of the piston bowl, and a plurality of diverters in the recess. The method includes opening an intake valve to introduce a first fuel, and injecting, by a set of fuel injector orifices substantially aligned with the diverters, a second fuel toward the diverters. The method also includes autoigniting the second fuel to ignite the first fuel.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 15, 2019
    Date of Patent: July 21, 2020
    Assignee: Caterpillar Inc.
    Inventors: Jonathan W. Anders, Bobby John
  • Patent number: 10712373
    Abstract: The subject matter of this specification can be embodied in, among other things, a method for characterizing a fluid injector that includes receiving a collection of waveform data, identifying a pull locus, determining a detection threshold level value, identifying a first subset of the collection of data representative of a selected first electrical waveform of the collection of electrical waveforms, identifying an opening value, identifying a representative closing value, identifying an anchor value, identifying a second subset of the collection of data based on the collection of data, the pull locus, the first subset, and the opening value, identifying a maximum electrical value, identifying an opening locus based the collection of data, the anchor value, and the maximum electrical value, identifying a hold value, and providing characteristics associated with the fluid injector comprising the pull locus, the opening locus, the hold value, the anchor value, and the representative closing value.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 26, 2019
    Date of Patent: July 14, 2020
    Assignee: Woodward, Inc.
    Inventors: Kamran Eftekhari Shahroudi, Suraj Nair
  • Patent number: 10704524
    Abstract: A control system of a compression-ignition engine which performs SPCCI combustion in which mixture gas is ignited with a spark plug to be partially combusted by SI combustion and the rest of mixture gas self-ignites to be combusted by CI combustion, is provided. When the engine is operated at least in a given first operating range, a controller of the device controls a variable intake mechanism so that an A/F lean environment where an air-fuel ratio in a cylinder becomes higher than a stoichiometric air-fuel ratio is formed, while causing the spark plug to perform spark ignition at a given timing so that the mixture gas combusts by SPCCI combustion, and controls so that, under the same engine load condition, an intake valve close timing is more retarded as the engine speed decreases, within a range where an amount of air inside the cylinder decreases by retarding the close timing.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 17, 2019
    Date of Patent: July 7, 2020
    Assignee: Mazda Motor Corporation
    Inventors: Masanari Sueoka, Atsushi Inoue, Keiji Maruyama, Takuya Ohura, Tomohiro Nishida, Yusuke Kawai, Tetsuya Chikada, Tatsuhiro Tokunaga
  • Patent number: 10704523
    Abstract: A control system of a compression-ignition engine includes an intake variable mechanism and a controller. In a second operating range, the controller controls the intake variable mechanism so that, while partial compression-ignition combustion is performed under an air-fuel ratio (A/F) lean environment, an intake valve open timing takes timing at an advanced side of an exhaust TDC. In a first operating range on a lower load side, the controller controls the intake variable mechanism so that, while the partial compression-ignition combustion is performed under the A/F lean environment, under the same engine speed condition, the intake valve close timing is more retarded within a range on a retarded side of an intake BDC as the engine load decreases, and an absolute value of a change rate of the intake valve close timing to the engine load becomes larger than in the second range.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 16, 2019
    Date of Patent: July 7, 2020
    Assignee: Mazda Motor Corporation
    Inventors: Masanari Sueoka, Atsushi Inoue, Keiji Maruyama, Takuya Ohura, Tomohiro Nishida, Yusuke Kawai, Tetsuya Chikada, Tatsuhiro Tokunaga