SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR ENGINE AND FUEL SYSTEM MAINTENANCE

• US 20110066352A1
• Filed: 04/16/2010
• Published: 03/17/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 09/16/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: GM Global Technology Operations LLC (General Motors Company)
• Original Assignee: GM Global Technology Operations Incorporated (Motors Liquidation Co. GUC Trust)
• Inventors: Chynoweth, Scott J., Sasaridis, Constantine J., Turley, Michael A., Blanchard, John P., Tretter, Jacob S., Assaf, Tameem K.
• Granted Patent: US 8,768,599 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/102
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2240/36 Temperature of vehicle components or parts
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2240/80 Time limits
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 50/10 using propulsion power supplied by engine-driven generators, e.g. generators driven by combustion engines
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 10/06 including control of combustion engines
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 20/00 Control systems specially adapted for hybrid vehicles hybrid vehicle design, B60K6/00; electric vehicles B60L
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 20/15 Control strategies specially adapted for achieving a particular effect
• CPC Class Codes: F02D 19/0623 Failure diagnosis or prevention; Safety measures; Testing
• CPC Class Codes: F02D 19/0628 Determining the fuel pressure, temperature or flow, the fuel tank fill level or a valve position
• CPC Class Codes: F02D 19/0665 Tanks, e.g. multiple tanks
• CPC Class Codes: F02D 19/084 Blends of gasoline and alcohols, e.g. E85
• CPC Class Codes: F02D 19/087 with determination of densities, viscosities, composition, concentration or mixture ratios of fuels
• CPC Class Codes: F02D 29/02 peculiar to engines driving vehicles; peculiar to engines driving variable pitch propellers
• CPC Class Codes: F02N 11/0829 related to special engine control, e.g. giving priority to engine warming-up or learning
• CPC Class Codes: F02N 2200/023 Engine temperature
• CPC Class Codes: F02N 2200/024 Engine oil temperature
• CPC Class Codes: F02N 2250/08 Lubrication of starters; Sealing means for starters
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 10/30 Use of alternative fuels, e.g. biofuels
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 10/40 Engine management systems
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 10/70 Energy storage systems for electromobility, e.g. batteries
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 10/7072 Electromobility specific charging systems or methods for batteries, ultracapacitors, supercapacitors or double-layer capacitors

Abstract

A control system for a vehicle includes a time determination module, a fuel age determination module, and an engine control module. The time determination module determines an engine off time, wherein the engine off time indicates an amount of time that an engine is off. The fuel age determination module determines an age of fuel in a fuel system of the engine. The engine control module starts the engine when one of the engine off time is greater than a predetermined time threshold and the age of the fuel is greater than a predetermined age threshold.

Claims

1. A control system for a vehicle, comprising:

a time determination module that determines an engine off time, wherein the engine off time indicates an amount of time that an engine is off;

a fuel age determination module that determines an age of fuel in a fuel system of the engine; and

an engine control module that starts the engine when one of the engine off time is greater than a predetermined time threshold and the age of the fuel is greater than a predetermined age threshold.

2. The control system of claim 1, wherein the engine control module stops the engine a predetermined period after starting the engine.

3. The control system of claim 2, wherein the engine control module stops the engine when an engine fluid temperature is greater than a predetermined temperature threshold for a predetermined period.

4. The control system of claim 3, wherein the engine off time is set to zero when the engine fluid temperature is greater than or equal to a desired operating temperature for a period of time.

5. The control system of claim 4, wherein the engine fluid temperature is one of engine coolant temperature and engine oil temperature.

6. The control system of claim 1, wherein the fuel age determination module determines the age of the fuel based on an amount of time since a previous refuel event.

7. The control system of claim 6, wherein the fuel age determination module determines the age of the fuel based on an ethanol content of the fuel.

8. The control system of claim 1, wherein the fuel age determination module decreases the age of the fuel when a refuel event occurs.

9. The control system of claim 1, further comprising:

a driver request generation module that generates a request for a driver of the vehicle to allow the engine to start.

10. The control system of claim 9, wherein the driver request generation module generates the request when one of the engine off time is greater than the predetermined time threshold and the age of the fuel is greater than the predetermined age threshold.

11. The control system of claim 10, further comprising:

a driver interface module that sends the request to the driver, and that receives a response to the request from the driver.

12. The control system of claim 11, wherein the engine control module starts the engine when the driver response affirms the request.

13. The control system of claim 1, wherein the predetermined time threshold is increased when a low fuel delay is present before an engine maintenance request is initiated, and wherein the predetermined time threshold is increased by X days if the vehicle is off when the engine off time equals the predetermined time threshold and the driver subsequently starts the vehicle X days later and default criteria have been met, wherein X is greater than or equal to zero.

14. The control system of claim 1, wherein the predetermined age threshold is increased when a low fuel delay is present before a fuel maintenance request is to be initiated, wherein the predetermined age threshold is increased by X days if the vehicle is off when the fuel age equals the predetermined age threshold and the driver subsequently starts the vehicle X days later and default criteria have been met, and wherein the predetermined age threshold is decreased to equal a current fuel age when an engine maintenance request is initiated within a calibratable period of a fuel maintenance request.

15. The control system of claim 1, wherein a completion percentage of a current maintenance operation is determined and visually displayed to the driver of the vehicle, wherein the completion percentage is determined based on one of:

a current run time of the current maintenance operation, a calibratable time based on engine fluid temperature, and an offset time, wherein the calibratable time reaches zero and the offset time is triggered and begins to countdown when the engine fluid temperature reaches a desired operating temperature; and

the current run time of the current maintenance operation and a maximum run time limit when one of the run time reaches a limit and an engine fluid temperature sensor has failed.

16. The control system of claim 15, wherein progress and completion percentage of the current maintenance operation are determined based on a number of engine cycles.

17. The control system of claim 15, wherein the offset time is increased by a calibratable amount during cold start operations, wherein the calibratable amount is one of a plurality of values based on the engine fluid temperature and stored in a look-up table.

18. The control system of claim 17, wherein the engine fluid temperature is one of engine coolant temperature and engine oil temperature, and wherein the engine fluid temperature sensor is one of an engine coolant temperature sensor and an engine oil temperature sensor.

19. The control system of claim 1, further comprising at least one of:

a first failsafe module that, when one of an engine coolant temperature sensor and an engine oil temperature sensor fails, runs engine maintenance until a maximum calibration time expires;

a second failsafe module that, when a fuel level sensor fails, runs engine or fuel maintenance with the fuel level failure by ignoring low fuel levels, increasing fuel age as normal, and not detecting refuel events;

a third failsafe module that, when a fuel composition sensor fails, commands a default fuel aging rate to maximum rate of fuel aging corresponding to pure ethanol; and

a fourth failsafe module that, when non-volatile memory (NVM) fails, sets the fuel age and the engine off time to calibrated values such that time does not start accumulating from zero if the vehicle was within a predetermined period of needing at least one of engine maintenance and fuel maintenance.

20. A method, comprising:

determining an engine off time, wherein the engine off time indicates an amount of time that an engine is off;

determining an age of fuel in a fuel system of the engine; and

starting the engine when one of the engine off time is greater than a predetermined time threshold and the age of the fuel is greater than a predetermined age threshold.

21. The method of claim 20, further comprising:

stopping the engine a predetermined period after starting the engine.

22. The method of claim 21, further comprising:

stopping the engine when an engine fluid temperature is greater than a predetermined temperature threshold for a predetermined period.

23. The method of claim 22, further comprising:

setting the engine off time to zero when the engine fluid temperature is greater than or equal to a desired operating temperature for a period of time.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein the engine fluid temperature is one of engine coolant temperature and engine oil temperature.

25. The method of claim 20, further comprising:

determining the age of the fuel based on an amount of time since a previous refuel event.

26. The method of claim 20, further comprising:

determining the age of the fuel based on an ethanol content of the fuel.

27. The method of claim 20, further comprising:

decreasing the age of the fuel when a refuel event occurs.

28. The method of claim 20, further comprising:

generating a request for a driver of a vehicle to allow the engine to start.

29. The method of claim 28, further comprising:

generating the request when one of the engine off time is greater than a predetermined time threshold and the age of the fuel is greater than a predetermined age threshold.

30. The method of claim 29, further comprising:

sending the request to the driver; and

receiving a response to the request from the driver.

31. The method of claim 30, further comprising:

starting the engine when the driver response affirms the request.

32. The method of claim 20, further comprising:

increasing the predetermined time threshold when a low fuel delay is present before an engine maintenance request is initiated; and

increasing the predetermined time threshold by X days if the vehicle is off when the engine off time equals the predetermined time threshold and the driver subsequently starts the vehicle X days later and default criteria have been met, wherein X is greater than or equal to zero.

33. The method of claim 20, further comprising:

increasing the predetermined age threshold when a low fuel delay is present before a fuel maintenance request is to be initiated;

increasing the predetermined age threshold by X days if the vehicle is off when the fuel age equals the predetermined age threshold and the driver subsequently starts the vehicle X days later and default criteria have been met; and

decreasing the predetermined age threshold to equal a current fuel age when an engine maintenance request is initiated within a calibratable period of a fuel maintenance request.

34. The method of claim 20, further comprising:

determining a completion percentage of a current maintenance operation and visually displaying the completion percentage to the driver of the vehicle, wherein the determining the completion percentage of the current maintenance operation is further based on one of;

a current run time of the current maintenance operation, a calibratable time based on engine fluid temperature, and an offset time, wherein the calibratable time reaches zero and the offset time is triggered and begins to countdown when the engine fluid temperature reaches a desired operating temperature; and

the current run time of the current maintenance operation and a maximum run time limit when one of the run time reaches a limit and an engine fluid temperature sensor has failed.

35. The method of claim 34, wherein progress and completion percentage of the current maintenance operation are determined based on a number of engine cycles.

36. The method of claim 34, further comprising:

Increasing the offset time by a calibratable amount during cold start operations, wherein the calibratable amount is one of a plurality of values based on the engine fluid temperature and stored in a look-up table.

37. The method of claim 36, wherein the engine fluid temperature is one of engine coolant temperature and engine oil temperature, and wherein the engine fluid temperature sensor is one of an engine coolant temperature sensor and an engine oil temperature sensor.

38. The method of claim 20, further comprising at least one of:

when one of an engine coolant sensor and an engine oil sensor fails, running engine maintenance until a maximum calibration time expires;

when a fuel level sensor fails, running engine or fuel maintenance with the fuel level failure by ignoring low fuel levels, increasing fuel age as normal, and not detecting refuel events;

when a fuel composition sensor fails, commanding a default fuel aging rate to maximum rate of fuel aging corresponding to pure ethanol; and

when non-volatile memory (NVM) fails, setting the fuel age and the engine off time to calibrated values such that time does not start accumulating from zero if the vehicle was within a predetermined period of needing at least one of engine maintenance and fuel maintenance.