A control device for an engine in which partial compression-ignition combustion including SI combustion performed by forcibly combusting a portion of mixture gas inside a cylinder followed by CI combustion performed by causing the rest of the mixture gas inside the cylinder to self-ignite is executed within a part of an operating range of the engine, is provided. The device includes a detector configured to detect a parameter related to noise caused by the combustion inside the cylinder, a memory configured to store a characteristic defining a relationship between a start timing of the CI combustion and a combustion noise index, and a processor configured to specify a given combustion noise index value based on the detection value of the detector, and control the start timing of the CI combustion.

A control device for a compression-ignition engine is provided, which includes an engine having a plurality of cylinders, spark plug, a fuel injector, and a control unit connected to the spark plug and the fuel injector. The control unit causes the engine to perform an all-cylinder operation when the engine operates at a load above a given load, and perform a reduced-cylinder operation at a load below the given load. In the reduced-cylinder operation, the fuel injector injects fuel to one or some of the cylinders to generate mixture gas, the spark plug ignites the mixture gas, and the engine starts, at an air-fuel ratio larger than a stoichiometric air-fuel ratio and a large compression ratio, SI combustion in which the mixture gas is ignited to combust by flame propagation, and then perform CI combustion in which unburned mixture gas ignites by self-ignition.

Fuel management system for efficient operation of a spark ignition gasoline engine. Injectors inject an anti-knock agent such as ethanol directly into a cylinder of the engine. A fuel management microprocessor system controls injection of the anti-knock agent so as to control knock and minimize that amount of the anti-knock agent that is used in a drive cycle. It is preferred that the anti-knock agent is ethanol. The use of ethanol can be further minimized by injection in a non-uniform manner within a cylinder. The ethanol injection suppresses knock so that higher compression ratio and/or engine downsizing from increased turbocharging or supercharging can be used to increase the efficiency or the engine.

Fuel management system for efficient operation of a spark ignition gasoline engine. Injectors inject an anti-knock agent such as ethanol directly into a cylinder of the engine. A fuel management microprocessor system controls injection of the anti-knock agent so as to control knock and minimize that amount of the anti-knock agent that is used in a drive cycle. It is preferred that the anti-knock agent is ethanol. The use of ethanol can be further minimized by injection in a non-uniform manner within a cylinder. The ethanol injection suppresses knock so that higher compression ratio and/or engine downsizing from increased turbocharging or supercharging can be used to increase the efficiency or the engine.

Provided is an engine that suppresses the occurrence of knocking or an accidental fire, which makes it possible to perform the operations of premixed compression self-ignition. Regarding the present invention, an engine includes a reforming cylinder, which is a fuel reforming device, and the reforming cylinder is connected to an intake pipe and an EGR pipe via a supply pipe and connected to the intake pipe via an exhaust pipe, and a primary fuel injection device is provided that injects fuel to the mixture of intake air and exhaust gas supplied to the reforming cylinder through the supply pipe.

Methods and systems are providing for improving zero flow lubrication (ZFL) of a high pressure fuel pump coupled to direct fuel injectors via a direct injection fuel rail. A ZFL transfer function for the fuel pump is learned while fuel is at non-nominal fuel bulk modulus conditions and corrected for variations from a nominal fuel bulk modulus estimate. When zero flow lubrication of the pump is requested, the pump is operated with a duty cycle based on the learned transfer function and an instantaneous estimate of the fuel bulk modulus to compensate for differences in fuel condition from the nominal fuel bulk modulus estimate.

Fuel management system for efficient operation of a spark ignition gasoline engine. Injectors inject an anti-knock agent such as ethanol directly into a cylinder of the engine. A fuel management microprocessor system controls injection of the anti-knock agent so as to control knock and minimize that amount of the anti-knock agent that is used in a drive cycle. It is preferred that the anti-knock agent is ethanol. The use of ethanol can be further minimized by injection in a non-uniform manner within a cylinder. The ethanol injection suppresses knock so that higher compression ratio and/or engine downsizing from increased turbocharging or supercharging can be used to increase the efficiency or the engine.

Fuel management system for efficient operation of a spark ignition gasoline engine. Injectors inject an anti-knock agent such as ethanol directly into a cylinder of the engine. A fuel management microprocessor system controls injection of the anti-knock agent so as to control knock and minimize that amount of the anti-knock agent that is used in a drive cycle. It is preferred that the anti-knock agent is ethanol. The use of ethanol can be further minimized by injection in a non-uniform manner within a cylinder. The ethanol injection suppresses knock so that higher compression ratio and/or engine downsizing from increased turbocharging or supercharging can be used to increase the efficiency or the engine.

Methods and systems are provided for an in-cylinder thermal energy recovery device that utilizes the Rankine Cycle to recover energy from exhaust gasses that may be used to produce additional work in the vehicle. In one example, a method may include outfitting the head area of each cylinder of an engine with a tube array comprising one or more tubes passing through the combustion chamber of the corresponding cylinder. Each tube array may receive an injection of working fluid that is based, in part, on the temperature of the tube array's corresponding cylinder, which may then be utilized to recover heat energy.

Fuel management system for efficient operation of a spark ignition gasoline engine. Injectors inject an anti-knock agent such as ethanol directly into a cylinder of the engine. A fuel management microprocessor system controls injection of the anti-knock agent so as to control knock and minimize that amount of the anti-knock agent that is used in a drive cycle. It is preferred that the anti-knock agent is ethanol. The use of ethanol can be further minimized by injection in a non-uniform manner within a cylinder. The ethanol injection suppresses knock so that higher compression ratio and/or engine downsizing from increased turbocharging or supercharging can be used to increase the efficiency or the engine.