Ford Global Technolgoies, LLC

John Michael Kacewicz

Arthur Joseph Varady

Robert Joseph Dalbo

Russell Randall Pearce

Scott Alan Bohr

Michael Igor Kluzner

Thomas Joseph Hermann

Timothy DeBastos

Patrick Sullivan

Sheran Anthony Alles

Lynn Edward Davison

Christopher Kragh

William Euliss

Cheryl Jeanette Stark

A method and system for fuel vapor control in a hybrid vehicle (HEV). The HEV fuel vapor recovery system includes a fuel tank isolation valve, which is normally closed to isolate storage of refueling from storage of diurnal vapors. The method for fuel vapor control includes selectively actuating the fuel tank isolation valve during interrelated routines for refueling, fuel vapor purging, and emission system leak detection diagnostics to improve regulation of pressure and vacuum the HEV fuel vapor recovery system.

Method and system for fuel vapor control

The invention is a strategy to detect spark plug misfires in a multiple spark plug per cylinder internal combustion engine (ICE). The present invention monitors spark plug misfires for each plug within each cylinder and initiates diagnostic fault code setting and failure mode actions such as modifying spark timing and the air/fuel ratio for the cylinder with the misfiring plug to optimize emissions and performance. The strategy modifies spark timing (such as spark retard) of a spark plug not under test but within the same cylinder of the tested spark plug and tests the tested spark plug for misfire (such as changes in crankshaft velocity or acceleration). The amount of spark retard invoked can be a calibrated value such as 30 or 50 degrees off Maximum Brake Torque (MBT) timing. The invention provides improvement over the prior art in that the strategy does not require the complete disabling of a spark plug within the same cylinder as the tested spark plug.

Method and system to detect spark loss in a multiple spark plug per cylinder internal combustion engine

An engine misfire detection circuit and method for operation includes a reference window generator that generates a misfire window reference signal having a misfire sampling window. A misfire window calculator is coupled to a condition variable input and the reference window generator. The condition varying input may be a filter input or an input from various engine sensors. The misfire window calculator calculates an offset for adjusting the sampling window in response to the condition variable input.

Engine misfire detection using adjustable windowing

Methods of utilizing engine crankshaft acceleration to monitor cold start spark retard are presented. A first method utilizes a variance in a crankshaft acceleration based deviation signal and looks for changes in the variance to confirm if cold spark retard has occurred by the ignition system. In a second method, a threshold level of a group of cylinder crankshaft acceleration deviation signals &Dgr;, can be detected and compared to a level of crankshaft deviant acceleration when normal spark is commanded to determine if commanded spark retard has been realized.

Method to verify cold start spark retard

A rotational sensing assembly including a ferromagnetic sensor wheel rotationally fixed to a shaft having a tooth pattern including a missing tooth. An inductive sensor is mounted adjacent the periphery of the sensor wheel and in communication with a processor. The sensor produces a generally sinusoidal signal in response to the wheel rotation, with voltage zero crossings that are time stamped by the processor. The geometry of the sensor wheel around the missing tooth location is altered to equalize the induced voltage in the sensor for fixed time intervals in order to maintain proper timing of the zero crossings in the sensor signal.

Magnetic rotary position sensing

A method for more accurately sensing the rotational position of a shaft having a toothed sensor wheel with a missing tooth is disclosed. The method includes employing an inductive sensor to produce a signal in response to the passing of the teeth on the sensor wheel. The sensor signal is altered by the geometry of the wheel about a gap formed by the missing tooth in order to correct for residual stored energy in the sensor at this location, and thus correct the signal for the timing measured by a processor in communication with the sensor.

Method of sensing rotational information of shaft with toothed wheel

An improved misfired detection system and method for high data rate engine control systems. A method of detecting misfires of individual cylinder events in an internal combustion engine is disclosed which includes the step of generating a high data rate velocity signal indicative of the torque behavior of the engine. The velocity signal is then filtered and separated into a plurality of non-interlaced homogeneous data sets wherein each of the data sets represents like portions of the internal combustion engine cycle. A median filter is then applied to each of the plurality of non-interlaced homogeneous data sets. In this manner, the data sets are normalized according to the applied recursive median filter and centered about a relative zero. This centering effect allows the signals to be recombined after filtering, thereby monitoring the nature of any deviations present in the signal. A threshold comparison of the resulting signal is then made to determine whether a misfire has occurred.

Growing community of inventors

Riverview, MI, United States of America

John Michael Kacewicz