Gm Global Technolgoy Operations, Inc.

Valerio Nuzzo

Angelo Cancellieri

Luca Lauritano

Serena Tordin

Paul Leonardo Claude

Marco Girotto

Fabio Ramundo

Fabrizio Abrate

A method of operating a fuel injector of an internal combustion engine includes setting a value of a target fuel quantity to be injected by the fuel injector, initializing a value of a fuel quantity requested from the fuel injector to the value of the target fuel quantity, and correcting the value of the requested fuel quantity. A first learning cycle is performed to correct the value of the requested fuel quantity in which a difference between the target fuel quantity and the injected fuel quantity is calculated and added to the requested fuel quantity to provide a corrected value. The corrected value of the requested fuel quantity is used to determine a reference value of an energizing time that causes the fuel injector to inject a fuel quantity corresponding to the target fuel quantity. The fuel injector is operated based on the determined reference value of the energizing time.

Method of operating a fuel injector

A method of operating an internal combustion engine of a vehicle is provided to maintain cylinder balance. A first operating mode corresponding to a steady state operation of the internal combustion engine is differentiated from a second operating mode corresponding to a transient operation of the internal combustion engine based upon a first operating parameter of the internal combustion engine. In the first operating mode, a first control strategy provides cylinder balance. In the second operating mode, a second control strategy, different than the first control strategy, provides cylinder balance. The second control strategy utilizes a dynamic factor based upon a second operating parameter of the internal combustion engine.

Control apparatus and method for internal combustion engine cylinder balance

A control apparatus for operating a fuel injector is provided. The control apparatus includes an electronic control unit configured to: identify when the engine is running under a fuel cut-off condition, and then perform a learning procedure to determine an actual value of energizing time that causes the fuel injector to inject a target fuel quantity. The learning procedure provides for the electronic control unit to perform several test injections with different energizing time values and measure an engine torque value caused by the test injection. The measured engine torque values and their correspondent energizing time values are used to extrapolate the actual value of the energizing time as the value that corresponds to a reference value of engine torque that is consistent with the target fuel quantity.

Control apparatus for operating a fuel injector

A method and apparatus for controlling fuel injection in an internal combustion engine is disclosed which controls a fuel injection pressure and a fuel injection energizing time, by using as input parameter an estimated corrected injector fuel quantity (Q). In particular, an injector fuel quantity deviation (&#x394;Q) corresponding to a current engine operating point is estimated and stored in a corresponding point of a map, representing engine operating points defined in terms of injection pressure and injector fuel quantity values. The stored injector fuel quantity deviation (&#x394;Q) are spread or propagated to each map point. For each engine operating point, the corrected injector fuel quantity (Q) is calculated by blending estimated values of the injector fuel quantity deviation (&#x394;Q) with corresponding spread values of the stored injector fuel quantity deviation (&#x394;Q) and summing this result to corresponding target values of the injector fuel quantity (Q).

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Turin, Italy

Valerio Nuzzo