Method and apparatus for controlling an internal combustion engine using accelerometers
First Claim
1. A method of controlling combustion of a fuel within a combustion chamber of internal combustion engine, said method comprising,a. during a cycle of said engine:
- i. introducing a charge into said combustion chamber,ii. compressing said charge within said combustion chamber,iii. introducing said fuel into said combustion chamber,iv. burning said fuel within said combustion chamber to drive a piston disposed within said combustion chamber,b. delivering an accelerometer data set to a controller, said accelerometer data set collected during at least two cycles of said engine,c. processing said accelerometer data set to generate a processed data set indicative of a heat release rate over said at least two cycles,d. estimating from said processed data set, an SOC error using a pre-determined target start of combustion for said fuel,e. if the magnitude of said SOC error is greater than 0, adjusting a start of combustion lever for at least one subsequent cycle of said engine to drive a corrected start of combustion during said at least one subsequent cycle towards said pre-determined target start of combustion.
9 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A method for processing an accelerometer data set generated from an operating internal combustion engine is disclosed. The processed accelerometer data is cepstrally filtered and a heat release trace is pulled from the accelerometer data set. That heat release trace is then used to estimate combustion quality and combustion phasing within the engine and control future combustion events using this information. Misfire and knock sensing is also incorporated into the engine controls. The method provides controls for an engine to allow it to adjust combustion from cycle window to cycle window generally without the need for expensive and less durable direct pressure measurement devices as compared to accelerometers. The resulting fuel injection speed results in the fuel passing through shock waves within the combustion chamber, which, in turn, promotes combustion of the fuel by promoting mixing of the fuel and intake charge within the combustion chamber.
-
Citations
26 Claims
-
1. A method of controlling combustion of a fuel within a combustion chamber of internal combustion engine, said method comprising,
a. during a cycle of said engine: -
i. introducing a charge into said combustion chamber, ii. compressing said charge within said combustion chamber, iii. introducing said fuel into said combustion chamber, iv. burning said fuel within said combustion chamber to drive a piston disposed within said combustion chamber, b. delivering an accelerometer data set to a controller, said accelerometer data set collected during at least two cycles of said engine, c. processing said accelerometer data set to generate a processed data set indicative of a heat release rate over said at least two cycles, d. estimating from said processed data set, an SOC error using a pre-determined target start of combustion for said fuel, e. if the magnitude of said SOC error is greater than 0, adjusting a start of combustion lever for at least one subsequent cycle of said engine to drive a corrected start of combustion during said at least one subsequent cycle towards said pre-determined target start of combustion. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14)
-
-
15. A method of determining combustion quality within a combustion chamber of an operating internal combustion engine, said method comprising:
-
a. during a cycles of said engine, generating an accelerometer data set from accelerometer measurements provided by an accelerometer positioned on said engine capable of measuring data indicative of combustion behavior within said combustion chamber; b. processing said accelerometer data set to reconstruct a processed data set indicative of heat release rate within said combustion chamber during said cycle of said engine; c. comparing properties of said processed data set with properties of a predetermined desired data set to provide an indication of said combustion quality. - View Dependent Claims (16, 17, 18)
-
-
19. A method of estimating start of combustion within a combustion chamber of an internal combustion engine,
a. during a cycle of said engine: -
i. introducing a charge into said combustion chamber, ii. compressing said charge within said combustion chamber, iii. introducing a fuel into said combustion chamber, iv. burning said fuel within said combustion chamber to drive a piston disposed within said combustion chamber, v. determining a data set indicative of a physical condition within said combustion chamber during said cycle, b. accumulating at least two data sets from corresponding cycles of said engine; c. processing said at least two data sets to generate processed data sets indicative of a heat release rate over said corresponding cycles of said engine, wherein a cepstral filter is applied to said at least two data sets to generate said processed data sets, d. estimating said start of combustion for said corresponding cycles of said engine from a predetermined relationship that is a function of selected properties of said processed data sets. - View Dependent Claims (20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26)
-
Specification