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EP0849457A2 Expired / Lapsed EP ⏱️ 0.0 years remaining

Apparatus and method for controlling combustion in internal combustion engines

Assignee: Toyota Motor Corp
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Filing: 1997-12-17
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Granted: —
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Expires: 2017-12-17
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Abstract

Abstract An engine that selects the combustion mode from a number of combustion modes. The engine includes a fuel supplying device (11) that supplies fuel directly into its cylinders (5). A detecting device (25-29 etc) detects the operating condition of the engine. A computing device (30) computes the actual engine load based on the detected operating conditions. An apparatus for controlling combustion controls the fuel supplying device (11) by selecting the combustion mode in accordance with the actual engine load. <IMAGE>

Inventors

  • 👤 Hiroyuki Mizuno
  • 👤 Shingo Kawasaki

Bibliographic Details

Application Number —
Jurisdiction EP
Data Source google_patents
Last Synchronized 2026-11-07 11:11
CPC Classifications
F; F02; F02D; F02D41/00; F02D41/30; F02D41/32; F02D41/34; F02D41/345; F02D41/3011; F02D41/3017; F02D41/3023; F02D41/3029; F02D41/3064; F02D41/38; F02D2041/389; F02D41/02; F02D41/14; Y; Y02; Y02T; Y02T10/00; Y02T10/10; Y02T10/12; Y02T10/40

Claims Analysis

Total Claims: 11
Claim 1
Independent Claim 100 words
An internal combustion engine having a cylinder (5), wherein the engine operates in a combustion mode selected from a plurality of different combustion modes to burn fuel in the cylinder, the engine being characterized by that: a fuel supplying device (11) supplies the fuel into the cylinder, condition detecting device (25-29 etc) detects operating conditions of the engine, a computer (30) computes a current value of an engine load in response to detected operating conditions, and a combustion controller (30) controls the fuel supplying device (11) by selecting a desired combustion mode in response to the computed current load value.
Claim 2
Dependent Claim 23 words
The engine according to Claim 1, wherein the fuel supplying device (11) is a fuel injector for injecting the fuel into the cylinder.
Claim 3
Dependent Claim 22 words
The engine according to Claim 1 or 2, wherein the engine load is represented by an amount of fuel to be injected.
Claim 4
Dependent Claim 40 words
The engine according to Claim 3, wherein the engine has an output shaft and wherein the combustion modes are predetermined according to certain ranges of the rotational speed of the output shaft and the amount of fuel to be injected.
Claim 5
Dependent Claim 53 words
The engine according to Claim 3, wherein the computer (30) computes a graded fuel injection amount (Q I ) by grading a basic fuel injection amount (Q B ) indicative of a theoretical engine load in a predetermined manner, wherein the graded fuel injection amount represents the current value of the engine load.
Claim 6
Dependent Claim 21 words
The engine according to Claim 3, wherein the combustion modes include stratified charge combustion, semi-stratified charge combustion and homogeneous charge combustion.
Claim 7
Dependent Claim 64 words
The engine according to Claim 6, wherein the combustion controller (30) activates the injector (11) at a late stage of the compression stroke to execute stratified charge combustion, activates the injector (11) during the intake stroke and at a late stage of the compression stroke to execute semi-stratified charge combustion, and activates the injector (11) during the intake stroke to execute homogeneous charge combustion.
Claim 8
Dependent Claim 31 words
The engine according to Claim 6, wherein the combustion modes are employed in order of stratified charge combustion, semi-stratified charge combustion and homogeneous charge combustion as the fuel injection amount increases.
Claim 9
Dependent Claim 62 words
The engine according to Claim 8, wherein stratified charge combustion range and semi-stratified charge combustion range are demarcated by a first boundary amount (Q1) of the fuel injection, and wherein the combustion controller (30) switches the combustion mode from stratified charge combustion to semi-stratified charge combustion when the graded fuel injection amount exceeds the first boundary amount (Q1) of the fuel injection.
Claim 10
Dependent Claim 62 words
The engine according to Claim 8, wherein semi-stratified charge combustion range and homogeneous charge combustion range are demarcated by a second boundary amount (Q2) of the fuel injection, and wherein the combustion controller (30) switches the combustion mode front semi-stratified charge combustion to homogeneous charge combustion when the graded fuel injection amount exceeds the second boundary amount (Q2) of the fuel injection.
Claim 11
Independent Claim 83 words
A method for burning fuel in a cylinder of an internal combustion engine, wherein the engine operates in a combustion mode selected from a plurality of different combustion modes, the method being characterized by the steps of: supplying the fuel into the cylinder; detecting operating conditions of the engine; computing a current value of an engine load in response to the detected operating conditions; and controlling the fuel supply by selecting a desired combustion mode in response to the computed current load value.

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