A method, a combustion engine controller, and a combustion engine incorporating the controller to implement the method are provided. The method includes determining a first dedicated exhaust gas recirculation (D-EGR) cylinder parameter value of a first D-EGR cylinder parameter associated with a first D-EGR cylinder of the combustion engine; and regenerating the first D-EGR cylinder responsive to the first D-EGR cylinder parameter value satisfying a threshold indicative of a carbon build-up level.

The invention, while reducing noise, suppresses a load increase in a processor and a delay in drive control. An engine control unit includes a processor, a driving circuit including a switching element to drive a load such as a fuel injector and an ignition device, and a communication circuit that transmits control signals from the processor to the driving circuit via serial communication. The control signals each include a command frame for controlling the driving circuit and a data frame for driving the load. If a predetermined bits in each of the data frames received from the processor at predetermined time intervals are determined to be the same twice in succession, the engine control unit changes a state of a driving signal ‘Drive’ for driving the load and thereby changes an operating state of the switching element.

A method for controlling an internal combustion engine is disclosed. The method may include receiving knock data corresponding to knock levels over a time period. The method may also include determining from the knock data whether the knock levels change over the time period. Further, the method may include determining that a variation in the gas composition of the gaseous fuel supplied to the internal combustion engine has occurred when the knock levels change over the time period. In addition, the method may include adjusting an operating condition of the internal combustion engine to adapt a knock susceptibility of the internal combustion engine to the varying gas composition.

It is possible to adjust electromagnetic energy introduced from a low-voltage side of a primary winding 20 of an ignition coil 2 after start discharging to a spark plug 1 from the ignition coil 2 in the correct proportion by threshold-determining either one or both of a primary voltage V1 applied to a primary side of the ignition coil 2 and a secondary current I2 flowing in a secondary side of the ignition coil 2, and by opening and closing a discharging switch 32 disposed between an auxiliary power supply 3 including an energy storage coil 330 and a low-voltage side terminal 201 of the ignition coil 2.

A system, method, and engine control module for energy ignition management of a combustion engine. The method may be performed by the system or the engine control module. The method includes determining operating conditions of the combustion engine, setting ignition energy characteristics for a dedicated EGR cylinder and a non-dedicated EGR cylinder based on the operating conditions. The ignition energy characteristics include at least one of magnitude of energy, current, voltage, and ignition energy duration. At least one characteristic of the ignition energy characteristics for the non-dedicated EGR cylinder is different than a corresponding characteristic for the dedicated EGR cylinder. The method also includes energizing ignition aid plugs based on the ignition energy characteristics.

An ignition coil system is configured for use with a spark ignition internal combustion engine. The system includes a first switching circuit electrically connected to the primary coil that provides electrical power to the primary coil. The system includes a second switching circuit connected to the primary coil that is configured to short the terminals of the primary coil after the secondary current has been induced in the secondary coil, whereby the secondary coil induces a current in the primary coil, thereby reducing the secondary current in the secondary wire coil. A controller in communication with the first and second switching circuits is configured to receive a single electronic spark timing (EST) signal and to control the conductive states and the non-conductive states of the first and second switching circuits based on this single EST signal.

Use of a liquid fuel composition comprising (a) a gasoline base fuel and (b) from 0.5 to 50% v/v of naphtha as a fuel for a spark ignition internal combustion engine, wherein the spark ignition internal combustion engine is comprised within the powertrain of a hybrid electric vehicle.

As a control method for internal combustion engine, a part of a low-medium revolution speed/low-medium load region of an internal combustion engine is set as a lean combustion region, homogeneous combustion is performed in an operating region within the lean combustion region where a load is relatively low, by injecting fuel at least once between an intake stroke and the first half of a compression stroke to form a homogeneous air-fuel mixture in a combustion chamber, and stratified combustion is performed in an operating region within the lean combustion region where the load is relatively high, by injecting the fuel at least once, respectively, between the intake stroke and the first half of the compression stroke as well as in the second half of the compression stroke to form a stratified air-fuel mixture in the combustion chamber. In this control method, ignition energy supplied to an ignition plug when the stratified combustion is performed is controlled to be smaller than ignition energy supplied to the ignition plug when the homogeneous combustion is performed.

An ignition apparatus includes a spark plug having a high voltage electrode and an external electrode facing each other across a gap and being configured to generate a spark discharge in the gap to ignite a combustible fuel mixture in a combustion chamber of an internal combustion engine, an ignition coil device configured to generate a predetermined high voltage and supply the high voltage to the high voltage electrode to form a path for the spark discharge in the gap, a high frequency power supply having a band-pass filter and being configured to supply an alternating current to the spark discharge path, and a control device configured to control operation timing of the high frequency power supply. The band-pass filter passes a frequency of from 1 MHz to 4 MHz.

Engine controllers and control schemes are provided for managing engine state transitions requiring increased compressor pressure ratios in turbocharged engines operating in a cylinder output level modulation mode (e.g., skip fire, multi-level skip fire, or firing level modulation modes). In some circumstances, turbo lag can be mitigated by initially transitioning the engine to an intermediate effective firing density that is higher than both the initial and target effective firing density to increase the flow of gases through the engine and the turbocharger while maintaining a compressor ratio the same as or close to the initial compressor pressure ratio. After reaching a point where the desired torque is actually generated at the intermediate effective firing density, the operational effective firing density is gradually reduced to the target effective firing density while increasing the operational compressor pressure ratio to the target compressor ratio.