Control system for compression-ignition engine

• US 10,641,197 B2
• Filed: 11/14/2018
• Issued: 05/05/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 12/15/2017
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Mazda Motor Corporation
• Original Assignee: Mazda Motor Corporation
• Inventors: Sueoka, Masanari, Ohura, Takuya, Tokunaga, Tatsuhiro, Maruyama, Keiji, Nishida, Tomohiro
• Primary Examiner(s): Mo, Xiao En
• Application Number:
  US16/190,380
• Publication Number:
  US 20190186402A1
• Time in Patent Office: 538 Days
• CPC Class Codes: F02B 1/04 with fuel-air mixture admission into cylinder
• CPC Class Codes: F02B 1/12 with compression ignition with fuel-air charge ignited by compression ignition of an additional fuel F02B7/00
• CPC Class Codes: F02B 2023/108 Swirl flow, i.e. the axis of rotation of the main charge flow motion is vertical
• CPC Class Codes: F02B 23/0645 Details related to the fuel injector or the fuel spray
• CPC Class Codes: F02B 23/10 with separate admission of air and fuel into cylinder
• CPC Class Codes: F02B 23/101 the injector being placed on or close to the cylinder centre axis, e.g. with mixture formation using spray guided concepts
• CPC Class Codes: F02D 2041/0015 for engines with means for controlling swirl or tumble flow, e.g. by using swirl valves
• CPC Class Codes: F02D 2041/389 for injecting directly into the cylinder
• CPC Class Codes: F02D 41/3041 with means for triggering compression ignition, e.g. spark plug
• CPC Class Codes: F02D 41/3047 said means being a secondary injection of fuel
• CPC Class Codes: F02D 41/402 Multiple injections
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 10/12 Improving ICE efficiencies
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 10/40 Engine management systems

Abstract

A control system for a compression-ignition engine is provided, which includes an engine having a combustion chamber, an injector configured to supply fuel into the combustion chamber, a spark plug, a swirl valve provided to an intake passage of the engine, and a controller. The controller includes a processor configured to execute a swirl adjusting module to adjust a swirl valve opening to generate a swirl flow inside the combustion chamber, a fuel injection amount controlling module to control fuel injection amounts of pre-injection and post-injection so as to increase a ratio of an injection amount of the post-injection to a total fuel injection amount into the combustion chamber in one cycle as an engine speed increases, and a combustion controlling module to control the spark plug to ignite at a given ignition timing after the swirl generation and fuel injection, so that partial compression-ignition combustion is performed.

Claims

1. A control system for a compression-ignition engine, comprising:

an engine having a combustion chamber formed by a cylinder, a piston, and a cylinder head;

an injector attached to the engine and configured to supply fuel into the combustion chamber;

a spark plug disposed to be oriented into the combustion chamber;

a swirl valve provided to an intake passage of the engine; and

a controller connected to the injector, the spark plug, and the swirl valve, and configured to output a control signal to the injector, the spark plug, and the swirl valve, respectively, the controller including a processor configured to execute;

a swirl adjusting module to adjust an opening of the swirl valve to generate a swirl flow inside the combustion chamber;

a fuel injection amount controlling module to control fuel injection amounts by the injector, of a pre-injection in which fuel is injected into the combustion chamber and a post-injection in which fuel is injected again after the pre-injection, the fuel injection amount controlling module outputting a first control instruction to the injector to increase a ratio of an injection amount of the post-injection to a total amount of fuel to be injected into the combustion chamber in one cycle as an engine speed increases within a low load side of an operating range where a partial compression-ignition combustion is performed in which the swirl flow is generated, and the fuel injection amount controlling module outputting a second control instruction to the injector to reduce the ratio of the injection amount of the post-injection to the total amount of fuel to be injected into the combustion chamber in one cycle as the engine speed increases within a high load side of the operating range where the partial compression-ignition combustion is performed in which the swirl flow is generated; and

a combustion controlling module to output an ignition instruction to the spark plug so as to ignite at a given ignition timing after the swirl generation by the swirl adjusting module and the fuel injection by the fuel injection amount controlling module, so that partial compression-ignition combustion in which the mixture gas combusts by flame propagation and then combusts by compression ignition is performed.

2. The control system of claim 1, wherein during the partial compression-ignition combustion in which the swirl flow is generated and the ratio of the injection amount of the post-injection is increased as the engine speed increases, when the engine speed is higher than a given value, the fuel injection amount controlling module controls the injector to perform the pre-injection and the post-injection on compression stroke.

3. The control system of claim 1, wherein during the partial compression-ignition combustion in which the swirl flow is generated and the ratio of the injection amount of the post-injection is increased as the engine speed increases, the fuel injection amount controlling module controls the injector to perform the pre-injection on intake stroke and the post-injection on compression stroke when the engine speed is lower than a given value.

4. The control system of claim 1, wherein the injector at least has a first nozzle port and a second nozzle port disposed at a center portion of a ceiling surface of the combustion chamber and separated from each other in a circumferential direction of the injector, the first and second nozzle ports simultaneously injecting the fuel,

wherein the swirl flow is an inclined swirl flow flowing nonparallel to a plane perpendicular to a center axis of the combustion chamber, and

wherein the first and second nozzle ports are positioned and oriented so that a first fuel portion injected by the first nozzle port that has reached the swirl flow moves downstream along the swirl flow and then joins with a second fuel portion injected by the second nozzle port that has reached the swirl flow.

5. The control system of claim 1, wherein during the partial compression-ignition combustion in which the swirl flow is generated and the ratio of the injection amount of the post-injection is increased as the engine speed increases, the fuel injection amount controlling module controls the injector so that the ratio of an injection amount of the pre-injection to the total amount of fuel to be injected into the combustion chamber in one cycle is reduced as the engine speed increases, and the ratio of the injection amount of the post-injection to the total amount of fuel to be injected into the combustion chamber in one cycle increases as the engine speed increases.

6. The control system of claim 1, wherein within the high load side of the operating range where the partial compression-ignition combustion is performed in which the swirl flow is generated and the ratio of the injection amount of the post-injection is increased as the engine speed increases, the swirl adjusting module causes the swirl valve to generate the swirl flow and the fuel injection amount controlling module controls the injector so that the pre-injection and the post-injection are performed and the ratio of the injection amount of the post-injection to the total amount of fuel to be injected into the combustion chamber in one cycle is reduced as the engine speed increases.

7. A control system for a compression-ignition engine including an injector configured to supply fuel into a combustion chamber and a spark plug configured to ignite a mixture gas containing fuel supplied from the injector and air, the engine performing partial compression-ignition combustion including spark ignition (SI) combustion performed by combusting a portion of the mixture gas through spark ignition by the spark plug, followed by compression ignition (CI) combustion performed by causing the remaining mixture gas to self-ignite, comprising:

a swirl mechanism configured to generate a swirl flow; and

a processor configured to, during the partial compression-ignition combustion;

control the swirl mechanism to generate the swirl flow;

control the injector to perform a pre-injection in which a given amount of fuel is injected into the combustion chamber and a post-injection in which fuel is injected again after the pre-injection; and

output a first control instruction to the injector to increase a ratio of the injection amount of the post-injection to a total amount of fuel to be injected into the combustion chamber in one cycle as an engine speed increases within a low load side of an operating range where the partial compression-ignition combustion is performed in which the swirl flow is venerated, and output a second control instruction to the injector to reduce the ratio of the injection amount of the post-injection to the total amount of fuel to be injected into the combustion chamber in one cycle as the engine speed increases within a high load side of the operating range where the partial compression-ignition combustion is performed in which the swirl flow is generated.

8. A control system for a compression-ignition engine, comprising:

an engine having a combustion chamber formed by a cylinder, a piston, and a cylinder head;

an injector attached to the engine and configured to supply fuel into the combustion chamber;

a spark plug disposed to be oriented into the combustion chamber;

a swirl valve provided to an intake passage of the engine; and

a controller connected to the injector, the spark plug, and the swirl valve, and configured to output a control signal to the injector, the spark plug, and the swirl valve, respectively, the controller including a processor configured to execute;

a swirl adjusting module to adjust an opening of the swirl valve to generate a swirl flow inside the combustion chamber;

a fuel injection amount controlling module to control fuel injection amounts by the injector, of a pre-injection in which fuel is injected into the combustion chamber and a post-injection in which fuel is injected again after the pre-injection, the fuel injection amount controlling module outputting a first control instruction to the injector to increase a ratio of an injection amount of the post-injection to a total amount of fuel to be injected into the combustion chamber in one cycle as an engine speed increases, and the fuel injection amount controlling module outputting a second control instruction to the injector to maintain constant the ratio of the injection amount of the post-injection to the total amount of fuel to be injected into the combustion chamber in one cycle as the engine speed increases at a high engine speed side above a first predetermined engine speed within a low load side of an operating range where a partial compression-ignition combustion is performed in which the swirl flow is generated; and

a combustion controlling module to output an ignition instruction to the spark plug so as to ignite at a given ignition timing after the swirl generation by the swirl adjusting module and the fuel injection by the fuel injection amount controlling module, so that partial compression-ignition combustion in which the mixture gas combusts by flame propagation and then combusts by compression ignition is performed.

9. The control system of claim 8, wherein the fuel injection amount controlling module outputs a third control instruction to the injector to maintain constant the ratio of the injection amount of the post-injection to the total amount of fuel to be injected into the combustion chamber in one cycle as the engine speed increases at a low engine speed side below a second predetermined engine speed within the low load side of the operating range where the partial compression-ignition combustion is performed in which the swirl flow is generated.

10. The control system of claim 8, wherein the fuel injection amount controlling module outputs a third control instruction to the injector to cause the ratio of the injection amount of the post-injection to the total amount of fuel to be injected into the combustion chamber in one cycle to be smaller than a ratio of an injection amount of the pre-injection to the total amount of fuel as the engine speed increases at the high engine speed side above the first predetermined engine speed within the low load side of the operating range where the partial compression-ignition combustion is performed in which the swirl flow is generated.