Mazda Motor Corporation

Noriyuki Ota

Yoshihisa Nou

Hiroyuki Yamashita

Akira Kageyama

Masahisa Yamakawa

Keiji Araki

Ryohei Ono

Kazuhiro Nagatsu

Kenji Uchida

Kouhei Iwai

Masahiko Fujimoto

Masashi Marubara

Takeshi Nagasawa

Shuji Oba

Hiroyuki Kurita

Naoya Watanabe

Hiroyuki Yamamoto

Kazuya Yokota

Kazuaki Narahara

Takaaki Nagano

Hidefumi Fujimoto

Kazutoyo Watanabe

Hidetoshi Kudou

Kiyotaka Sato

Hidetoshi Kudo

Yasushi Murakami

Hirofumi Nishimura

Takashi Youso

Youichi Kuji

Tatsuya Fujikawa

Masatoshi Seto

Masayuki Kuroki

Tatsuya Koga

Takehiko Yasuoka

Toshiyuki Terashita

Daisuke Asaji

A method of controlling an engine is provided, which includes the steps of injecting main fuel by a fuel injector during an intake stroke or a compression stroke, providing a mixture gas containing fuel and air inside a cylinder, applying by an ignition device a high voltage between electrodes of a spark plug at a timing when the mixture gas is not ignited, detecting a parameter related to a current value of an electric-discharge channel generated between the electrodes, determining by a controller whether the detected parameter is within a range between a first threshold and a second threshold to determine a flowing state of a vortex inside the cylinder, operating the spark plug to carry out a supplemental ignition when the parameter is determined to be outside the range, and igniting the mixture gas by operation of the spark plug after the supplemental ignition.

Method of controlling engine, and engine system

A method of controlling an engine is provided, the method including the steps of injecting main fuel by a fuel injector during an intake stroke or a compression stroke, providing a mixture gas containing fuel and air inside a cylinder, applying by an ignition device a high voltage between electrodes of a spark plug at a timing when the mixture gas is not ignited, detecting a parameter related to a current value of an electric-discharge channel generated between the electrodes, determining whether the detected parameter is within a range between a first threshold and a second threshold to determine a flowing state of a vortex inside the cylinder, injecting supplemental fuel by the fuel injector after the main fuel injection when the parameter is determined to be outside the range, and igniting the mixture gas by the ignition device using the spark plug after the supplemental fuel injection.

Control is performed so as to occur SPCCI combustion in which, after an air-fuel mixture in a first area of a combustion chamber that includes an electrode portion of an ignition device is burned by receiving ignition energy, an air-fuel mixture formed in a second area located on an outer periphery of the first area is self-ignited. Control is also performed such that, in a high load operation region of an SPCCI combustion execution region, an air-fuel ratio in the entire combustion chamber becomes richer than a stoichiometric air-fuel ratio and that an air-fuel ratio of the air-fuel mixture in the first area becomes leaner than an air-fuel ratio of the air-fuel mixture in the second area.

Premixed compression ignition engine and method for controlling premixed compression ignition engine

Disclosed herein is a fuel injection control device for a direct injection engine including an engine body (engine) and a fuel injection control unit (engine controller). The fuel injection control unit injects a fuel in a predetermined injection mode into a combustion chamber () such that while the engine body is warm, an air-fuel mixture layer and a heat-insulating gas layer, surrounding the air-fuel mixture layer, are formed in the combustion chamber at a point in time when an air-fuel mixture ignites, and changes the injection mode of the fuel into the combustion chamber such that while the engine body is cold, the lower the temperature of the engine body is, the thinner the heat-insulating gas layer becomes.

Fuel injection control device for direct injection engine

A fuel injection valve () is configured such that the effective opening area of an injection port () increases as its lift amount increases. A fuel injection control unit (an engine control unit) injects fuel in a lift amount changing mode wherein, when fuel is injected into a combustion chamber () in the terminal period of the compression stroke, the lift amount of the fuel injection valve is set to a predetermined large lift amount in the earlier period of the injection period, and in the later period of the injection period following the earlier period of the injection period, the lift amount is set to a small lift amount smaller than the large lift amount and is in a range where the fuel injection speed increases.

Fuel injection control device for direct-injection engine

A fuel injection valve is provided for a ceiling portion of a cylinder head. A tip of an ignition electrode is arranged in the vicinity of an injection tip of the fuel injection valve. A recess is provided for the ceiling portion. A center of a cavity is shifted with respect to a bore center of the cylinder. In a vertical cross-section of the inside of a combustion chamber taken along a plane passing through the injection tip of the fuel injection valve and the tip of the ignition electrode, a distance from the injection tip to a wall surface of the cavity at a side at which the ignition electrode is provided is longer than a distance from the injection tip to a wall surface of the cavity at an opposite side.

Combustion chamber structure for direct injection engine

A fuel injection valve is shifted, with respect to the bore center of a cylinder, toward one end of an engine's output shaft. A top surface of a piston has inclined surfaces, and is raised by the inclined surfaces. A cavity is formed by hollowing out portions of the inclined surfaces, and faces the injection axis of the fuel injection valve. In a vertical cross section taken along the plane passing through a particular location in an intake other-side region of a combustion chamber and the location of the fuel injection valve, the distance from an injection tip of the fuel injection valve to the wall surface of the cavity at the particular location is longer than that from the injection tip to the wall surface at a diametrically opposed location to the particular location.

Structure of combustion chamber for direct injection engine

A fuel injection valve is caused to inject fuel in a latter half of a compression stroke in such a manner that a fuel concentration immediately before start of combustion is higher in a middle portion of a combustion chamber than in an outer peripheral portion thereof in a low load range where the engine load is lower than a predetermined set reference load. An intake valve driving device is controlled in such a manner that an intake valve closing timing in the low load range is advanced on a retard side with respect to an intake bottom dead center in a case where the engine speed is high, as compared with a case where the engine speed is low, and intake air within a cylinder is blown back toward an intake port at least in a range where the engine speed is low.

Direct injection engine

A control device of a direct-injection engine is provided. The control device includes an engine body having a piston provided inside a cylinder and a combustion chamber formed by the cylinder and the piston, an injector for injecting fuel into the combustion chamber, an ozone generator for generating ozone inside the combustion chamber, and a controller for controlling the injector and the ozone generator. The controller controls the injector to inject a first amount of the fuel and, after this fuel is ignited, to inject a second amount of the fuel, and the controller controls the ozone generator to generate ozone in synchronization with the fuel injection that is performed by the injector after the fuel ignition.

Control device of direct-injection engine

A control device of a spark-ignition gasoline engine is provided. The control device includes a controller for operating the engine body by controlling at least a fuel injection valve, an ignition plug, and a fuel pressure variable mechanism. Depending on the engine load range, the controller sets the combustion mode to a compression-ignition mode or a spark-ignition mode. In each mode, the controller also controls the fuel pressure, and the timing of fuel injection and ignition. The controller may also performs external EGR control in each mode.

Control device of spark-ignition gasoline engine

The disclosure provides a control device of a spark-ignition gasoline engine. When an operating state of an engine body is within a low engine speed range, a controller controls a fuel pressure variable mechanism so that a fuel pressure is higher within a high engine load range compared to a low engine load range, the controller operates, within the high engine load range, a fuel injection valve to perform a fuel injection at least at a timing that is more retarded than an injection timing of a fuel within the low engine load range and is within a retard period from a late stage of a compression stroke to an early stage of an expansion stroke, and the controller operates, within the high engine load range, an ignition plug to ignite at a timing within the retard period and further after the fuel injection.

The disclosure provides a control device of a spark-ignition gasoline engine. When an operating state of an engine body is within a low engine speed range, a controller operates a fuel pressure variable mechanism so that a fuel pressure is higher within a high engine load range compared to a low engine load range, the controller operates, within the high engine load range, a fuel injection mechanism to perform at least a fuel injection into the cylinder by a cylinder internal injection valve at a timing during a retard period from a late stage of a compression stroke to an early stage of an expansion stroke, and the controller operates, within the high engine load range, an ignition plug to ignite at a timing during the retard period and after the fuel injection.

There is provided a method for starting a spark ignition engine having multiple cylinders. The method may comprise supplying air and fuel for restart into a first cylinder before said engine completely stops, and igniting the mixture of said air and said fuel in said first cylinder in response to an engine restart request, wherein said first cylinder is on an expansion stroke when said engine stops. The method may also include, after said piston in said first cylinder starts moving, injecting fuel into a second cylinder that is on a compression stroke when said engine stops, on a compression stroke where a piston of said second cylinder is moving in a direction opposite to an operative direction of said piston in said first cylinder.

Method of starting spark ignition engine without using starter motor

There is provided a method of starting a spark ignition engine having multiple cylinders. The method comprises supplying air and fuel for restart into a first cylinder before the engine completely stops, and igniting the mixture of the air and the fuel in the first cylinder in response to an engine start request. In accordance with the method, by supplying air and fuel into the first cylinder before the engine completely stops, the mixture of air and fuel in the first cylinder may be homogeneous at the time of the engine start request. Also, there may be less mixture turbulence and combustion may propagate better within the cylinder. These conditions may reduce the rate of combustion in the first cylinder after a start request is initiated. The slower combustion rate may decrease temperature of the combusted gas while the cylinder wall temperature is relatively low because the engine has stopped. As a result, the slower combustion may reduce heat loss in the first cylinder because of the smaller difference between the temperatures of the combusted gas and the cylinder wall. Consequently, more energy may be directed from the first cylinder to the crankshaft, so that the engine restart becomes more reliable.

A direct fuel injection ignition engine includes combustion chambers with a pent roof type ceiling. Each piston has a top surface with a configuration complementary to the combustion chamber ceiling. A fuel injector is disposed at a peripheral portion of the combustion chamber and injects fuel toward the center portion of the top surface of the piston. A cavity is formed on the top surface of the piston. The cavity has a configuration of an elongated circle with a substantially flat bottom surface. The surrounding side wall of the cavity is substantially upright in relation to the bottom surface. A cavity centerline drawn through the longitudinal axis of the cavity is perpendicular to the injection axis line and offset from the center of the piston toward the injector.

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Hiroshima, Japan

Noriyuki Ota