Denso Corporation

Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha

Masaomi Inoue

Kenji Kasashima

Yuichi Takemura

Yuuichi Takemura

Rihito Kaneko

Zenichiro Mashiki

Toshikazu Tanaka

Satoshi Masuda

Shigeru Kamio

Kenji Senda

Haruyuki Urushihata

Osamu Sato

Hisashi Iida

Noboru Takagi

Jun Hasegawa

Yasumichi Inoue

Yoshihiro Majima

Michio Adachi

Naoyuki Kamiya

Masakazu Yamada

Minoru Wada

Noriaki Iwase

Shigeyuki Kusano

Satoshi Koike

Hideki Yukumoto

Masayoshi Hattori

Hideyuki Maeji

Motohiro Okada

Hideki Morishima

A control device projects a lock pin to lock a VCT phase in an intermediate lock phase when a lock request occurs. A learning unit learns one of a most retarded phase, a most advanced phase, and an intermediate lock phase, as a reference phase. A control unit sets a target phase according to the reference phase and controls the control device. A monitor unit determines that the VCT phase has passed through the intermediate lock phase when the lock request occurs before completion of learning of the reference phase, and when a change in the VCT phase becomes greater than a threshold. The threshold is set to be greater than a sum of i) a design value of a phase difference between the intermediate lock phase and one of the most retarded phase and the most advanced phase and ii) a range of a product variation of the phase difference.

Variable valve timing control apparatus and method for controlling variable valve timing device

A variable valve timing control apparatus for an internal combustion engine having a crankshaft and a camshaft, the variable valve timing control apparatus including a hydraulic variable valve timing device, an intermediate lock mechanism, and an oil pressure control device. The control apparatus learns an intermediate lock position to obtain a learning value of the intermediate lock position when the intermediate lock mechanism locks the VCT phase at the intermediate lock position. The control apparatus computes an actual VCT phase based on the learning value of the intermediate lock position. The control apparatus computes a target VCT phase in accordance with an operational condition of the engine based on the learning value of the intermediate lock position. The control apparatus controls a control amount of the oil pressure control device such that the actual VCT phase becomes the target VCT phase.

Variable valve timing control apparatus for internal combustion engine

At time of starting an engine, stop/rotation of an electric motor is sensed based on presence/absence of output pulses of an encoder installed in the motor. Controlling of power supply to the motor is prohibited to maintain an off-state of the motor until start of rotation of the motor is sensed. When the start of the motor is sensed, the controlling of the power supply to the motor is started. At time of stopping the engine, stop/rotation of the motor is sensed based on time intervals of pulses outputted from the encoder. The controlling of the power supply to the motor is enabled until sensing of stopping of rotation of the motor. When the stopping of rotation of the motor is sensed, the controlling of the power supply to the motor is prohibited to stop the power supply to the motor.

Control device for electrically driven variable valve timing apparatus

When an engine is at starting or at cold state, a closing time of an exhaust valve is set before an intake top dead center to close the exhaust valve early. An exhaust residual gas is compressed by a cylinder to raise an inner cylinder temperature. A pre-fuel injection is performed from a time of closing the exhaust valve to a time of the intake top dead center in such a manner that the pre-injected fuel is combusted to raise the inner cylinder temperature. This increase in temperature expedites an atomization of fuel injected at a main fuel injection. A wet amount of fuel is reduced and HC emission is also reduced.

Controller for direct injection engine

An actuator operation amount setting unit prepares the rotational speed command value for an electric motor such that the phase of an intake valve changes in accordance with the target phase. An electric-motor EDU controls the motor supply electric power such that the electric motor operates in accordance with the rotational speed command value. An overheating determination unit determines whether at least one of the electric motor and the electric-motor EDU needs to be restricted from heating up based on a result of comparison between the information indicating the motor supply electric power and the reference value. A rotational speed command value restriction unit restricts the rotational speed command value provided to the electric-motor EDU to a value within a predetermined range, when it is determined that the at least one of the electric motor and the electric-motor EDU needs to be restricted from heating up. A reference value setting unit variably sets the reference value based on the rotational speed of the electric motor.

Variable valve timing system and method for controlling the same

A motor current (driving current of motor) is estimated based on a target motor speed, an actual motor speed, and an engine speed. When the estimated motor current exceeds the upper limit value equivalent to a heat generation limiting current, the motor current is restricted by restricting a variation (motor speed F/B amount) in target motor speed outputted to an EDU from an ECU. Thereby, the heat value of motor may not exceed the heat generation limit, and it can be prevented that the coil temperature of motor exceeds an allowable temperature range. A durability deterioration and failure of motor can be prevented.

Variable valve timing controller for internal combustion engine

An ECU outputs a signal indicative of a target motor speed calculated based on a deviation between a target camshaft phase and an actual camshaft phase to an EDU. The EDU performs a feedback control of the output current (motor current) of the EDU so that the deviation is decreased, whereby an actual camshaft phase is feedbacked to a target camshaft phase. When the supply voltage of EDU is less than the operation limit voltage established higher than minimum operation assurance voltage, the variation of the target motor speed is restricted. Thereby, the output current of EDU is restricted, and further, when the supply voltage is less than minimum operation assurance voltage, the output current of EDU is intercepted.

A motor current (driving current of motor) is estimated based on a target motor speed, an actual motor speed, and an engine speed. When the estimated motor current exceeds the upper limit value equivalent to a heat generation limiting current, the motor current is restricted by restricting a variation (motor speed F/B amount) in target motor speed outputted to an EDU from an ECU. If it is continued that a deviation between the target motor speed and the actual motor speed exceeds a predetermined value, the estimated motor current exceeds this upper limit value and the restricting action of the motor current is continued.

A motor current is estimated based on a target motor speed, an actual motor speed, and an engine speed. When the estimated motor current exceeds a predetermined value equivalent to a heat limiting current value, a variation (motor speed F/B amount) of the target motor speed outputted to an EDU from an ECU is restricted so that the motor current was restricted and heat generation in motor is restricted. In consideration of a deterioration of responsivity of the variable valve timing control due to restriction of the motor current during execution of motor current restriction processing, an existence of the abnormalities of variable valve timing controller is determined based on a deviation of the target camshaft phase and the actual camshaft phase.

The signal levels of vibration waveform signals outputted by knock sensors are extracted at a filter processing section for each of a plurality of frequency bands. The mean value of the signal levels in the frequency bands at a point in time when variation of the signal levels in the frequency bands is minimum computed, and the mean value is detected as a background level. A knock characteristic parameter, which represents the characteristics of knock, is computed based on the extracted signal levels in the frequency bands. The knock characteristic parameter is compared with the background level to obtain a knock intensity. If the knock intensity is equal to or greater than a knock determination value, it is determined that knock that exceeds a permissible level is occurring. If the knock intensity is less than the knock determination value, it is determined that knock that exceeds the permissible level is not occurring. This configuration permits the background level of the output of the knock sensors to be accurately detected without being influenced by knock or noise.

Knock detecting apparatus and method for internal combustion engine

An engine ECU executes a program including the steps of: detecting a waveform of vibration of an engine at a predetermined knock detection gate; determining whether a detected vibration's waveform and a knock waveform model stored in memory match within a predetermined range; if the model and the detected vibration's waveform match within the predetermined range, determining that the engine knocks; and if the model and the detected vibration's waveform do not match within the predetermined range, then determining that the engine does not knock.

Internal combustion engine knock determination device and ignition control system including the same

An engine ECU executes a program including a step of calculating coefficient of correlation K that is a value related to a deviation between a vibration waveform and a knock waveform model by comparing the engine's vibration waveform with the knock waveform model stored in advance at a plurality of timings, a step of calculating a knock intensity N as based on a largest coefficient of correlation K among the calculated coefficient of correlation Ks, a step of determining that the engine knocks if knock intensity N is larger than a predetermined reference value (YES at S), and a step of determining that the engine does not knock if knock intensity N is not larger than a predetermined reference value (NO at S).

Knock determination device for internal combustion engine

A waveform knock signal detected by a knock sensor is filtered through a band-pass filter. The detected wave form signal is compared with an ideal reference knock waveform to determine an engine knock. The ideal reference knock waveform is derived on the basis of a factor depending on a crank angle, a factor depending on a real time and a factor depending on an engine construction. The factor depending on the real time is calculated based on an energy loss in a combustion chamber and a time constant of the band-pass filter. The factor depending on the engine construction is calculated based on a knock vibration which is generated in a cylinder, transferred to a cylinder block and detected by the knock sensor.

Knock detecting apparatus for internal combustion engine

An ECU obtains two data values (a peak value and a waveform correlation coefficient) that show the characteristics of a knock from the output of a knock sensor. The ECO approximately obtains the mean of each data value by smoothing each data value, and approximately obtains a variance by smoothing the squared deviation between the data values before and after the smoothing process. The ECU then computes the square root of the variance to approximately obtain a standard deviation. The ECU normalizes each data value using the mean and the standard deviation, obtains a distribution of the normalized two data values, and calculates a correlation coefficient that shows the correlation between the obtained distribution and an ideal knock distribution. Based on the correlation coefficient, the ECU corrects a knock determination threshold value. Therefore, the mean and the standard deviation of the data values are computed with a small RAM capacity.

Apparatus and method for controlling internal combustion engine

A plurality of variables representing the characteristics of a knock is obtained from an output signal of a sensor. The variables include a peak value of the knock frequency component in the output signal of the sensor and a waveform correlation coefficient representing the correlation between the waveform of the output signal and an ideal knock waveform, which is the waveform specific to a knock. The peak value and the waveform correlation coefficient are normalized, and a detection distribution is created using the obtained normalized data values. A correlation coefficient for knock determination representing the correlation between the detection distribution and an ideal knock distribution is calculated. The correlation coefficient for knock determination is compared with a predetermined knock determination threshold value, and the knock determination threshold value is corrected in accordance with the comparison result. As a result, the accuracy and the reliability of knock determination are improved.

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Kariya, Japan

Masaomi Inoue