Fiat Group Automobiles S.p.a.

Magneti Marelli S.p.a.

Domenico Tavella

Fabio Garofalo

Alessandro Riegel

Ferdinando De Cristofaro

Stefano Sgatti

Massimo Zanotti

Nando Vennettilli

Angelo Sanapo

Ferdinando De Cristoforo

Eduardo Sepe

Automotive electrical system for a motor vehicle comprising an internal combustion engine of a motor vehicle; the electric vehicle system comprising a series of electric vehicle loads, an electric battery, and an alternator generating a supply voltage of the electric vehicle loads and of the electric battery; the alternator comprising an inductive electric circuit adapted to be crossed by an electric control current; the electric vehicle system comprises an alternator electronic control system configured so as to determine a series of battery parameters (pam_bat) indicating the state of operation of the electric battery; determine at least a first vehicle parameter indicating the acceleration of the motor vehicle; determine the operative state of the internal combustion engine; determine an electric regulation voltage according to the operative engine station, to the vehicle parameter and to the battery parameters; vary an electric control current circulating in the inductive electric circuit of the alternator according to the electric regulation voltage.

Automotive electrical system provided with an alternator electronic control system

A method of controlling a vehicle equipped with an internal-combustion engine with a 'stop and start' system. The method provides, during vehicle running, for learning the 'duty cycle' values associated with the odd gears and even gears, determining the &#x201c;maximum duty cycle&#x201d; value for the odd gears and &#x201c;minimum duty cycle&#x201d; value for the even gears, determining a duty-cycle band to which the &#x201c;neutral gear&#x201d; condition corresponds on the basis of the &#x201c;minimum duty cycle&#x201d; value for the even gears and &#x201c;maximum duty cycle&#x201d; value for the odd gears, and controlling the &#x201c;stop and start&#x201d; system on the basis of the duty-cycle band to which the &#x201c;neutral gear&#x201d; condition corresponds.

Method of controlling a vehicle equipped with an internal combustion engine with a stop and start system

A method is described for estimating the intake air flow rate in an internal combustion engine provided with an air intake system, wherein said system comprises valve means for controlling an intake air flow rate, characterized in that it comprises the phases of implementing a first and a second algorithm, suitable to determine respectively a first and a second engine intake air flow rate; and of selecting the first or the second flow rate, on the basis of a previously defined selection criterion.

Method and device for estimating the intake air flow rate in an internal combustion engine

An internal-combustion engine for motor vehicles, for example a petrol-fuelled engine or a gas-fuelled engine, is provided with an electronically controlled hydraulic system for variable actuation of the intake valves. The system of variable actuation of the intake valves is governed by an electronic control unit that is programmed for performing at least once, at the start of the life of the engine, an activity of supervision of the functions of self-adaptive control of the air-fuel ratio. The supervision activity is based upon identification of a constant ratio between a delta in the value of the crank angle used by the electronic control unit and the error in the estimation of the air-fuel ratio by the electronic control unit when the system of actuation of the intake valves operates in late-opening mode. The activity of supervision envisages that the electronic control unit detects and stores the variation in the value of the crank angle (crank-angle delta) that must be applied to the value of the crank angle used by the electronic control unit in order to reach an estimated value of the mass of air taken in that basically coincides with the real value.

Internal-combustion engine with variable actuation of the intake valves and self-adaptive control of the air-fuel ratio with supervision of the control functions

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Turin, Italy

Domenico Tavella