Gm Global Technolgoy Operations, Inc.

Tula Technology, Inc.

Other

Steven J Haase

Allen B Rayl, Jr

Louis Joseph Serrano

Steven E Carlson

Donavan L Dibble

Donovan L Dibble

Darrell W Burleigh

Jason Thomas Davis

Jay Tolsma

Greg Holle

Tamera Holle

Sherry Haase

A variety of methods and arrangements are described for controlling transitions between firing fractions during skip fire or other dynamic firing level modulation operation of an engine. In general, actuator first transition strategies are described in which an actuator position (e.g., cam phase, TCC slip, etc.) is changed to, or close to a target position before a corresponding firing fraction change is implemented. When the actuator change associated with a desired firing fraction change is relatively large, the firing fraction change is divided into a series of two or more firing fraction change steps. A number of intermediate target selection schemes are described as well.

Coordination of vehicle actuators during firing fraction transitions

A variety of methods and arrangements are described for controlling transitions between firing fractions during skip fire and potentially variable displacement operation of an engine. In general, cam first transition strategies are described in which the cam phase is changed to, or close to a target cam phase before a corresponding firing fraction change is implemented. When the cam phase change associated with a desired firing fraction change is relatively large, the firing fraction change is divided into a series of two or more firing fraction change steps&#x2014;with each step using a cam first transition approach. A number of intermediate target selection schemes are described as well.

A method for operating an internal combustion engine includes providing a vehicle having an internal combustion gasoline engine including multiple cylinders and wherein the engine is capable of running on at least one of a plurality firing fractions, providing a vacuum offset (Offset) to adjust airflow capacity for each of the plurality of firing fractions, determining a torque capacity of each of the plurality firing fractions and a plurality of available firing fractions that provides at least enough torque capacity to accommodate a current torque requested (T), determining a plurality of viable firing fractions of the plurality of available firing fractions, and determining and implementing an optimal firing fraction of the viable firing fractions if the optimal firing fraction provides enough fuel economy benefit over a current firing fraction.

Method to optimize engine operation using active fuel management

An ionic foot bath array for generating an ionic foot bath includes an upper rod support structure, at least one electrically non-conductive support structure leg depending downwards from the upper rod support structure and a plurality of generally cylindrical electrically conductive ionic rods each having the same diameter, the ionic rods being removably mounted and depending downwards from the upper rod support structure, each of the ionic rods extending generally parallel with one another in spaced-apart relationship in at least two generally parallel rows, the ionic rods having an intra-row spacing therebetween of no greater than two times the diameter of each ionic rod, the rows being spaced no greater than three times the diameter of each ionic rod, with at least one of the rows being positively charged and at least one of the rows being negatively charged.

Ionic foot bath array with ionic circulation

An improved fuel compensation method for a variable cam phase engine which predicts the phase of the cam at the midpoint of valve overlap and uses the predicted cam phase to compensate a base fuel pulse for the corresponding amount of diluent. If the cam phase is in transition to a desired value, the cam phase for purposes of compensation may be predicted based on the desired cam phase, current cam phase and its rate of change; otherwise, the cam phase is predicted based on the current cam phase. In a first interval of cam phase transition characterized by nonlinear change in cam phase, the cam phase is predicted by applying a nonlinear offset to the measured cam phase. In a second interval of cam phase transition characterized by substantially linear variation of cam phase, the cam phase is predicted by linear extrapolation of the measured cam phase, and limited to range bounded by the measured cam phase and the desired cam phase.

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Okemos, MI, United States of America

Steven J Haase