An airflow control valve structure includes a metal connecting shaft and a plastic valve body. The connection shaft includes an embedded portion. The connecting shaft is configured to rotate about a rotation axis. The embedded portion is embedded so that the valve body rotates integrally with the connecting shaft. The airflow control valve structure further includes a rotation restriction portion and a movement restriction portion. The rotation restriction portion is located on the embedded portion and restricts rotation of the embedded portion relative to the valve body. The movement restriction portion is located on the embedded portion and restricts movement of the embedded portion relative to the valve body in a direction along the rotation axis.

In a piston of an internal combustion engine in which a recessed portion that holds an intake air swirling flow is formed on a crown surface of the piston, the crown surface includes a heat insulating film formation portion having a heat insulating film whose thermal conductivity is lower than a base material of the piston, the heat insulating film whose thermal capacity per volume is smaller than the base material of the piston, and a heat insulating film non-formation portion provided at a position on the more outside of a cylinder bore side of the internal combustion engine than the heat insulating film formation portion, the heat insulating film non-formation portion not having the heat insulating film.

A control apparatus for an engine includes an engine, a state quantity setting device, a spark plug, and a controller. The spark plug ignites air-fuel mixture at predetermined ignition timing so that unburned air-fuel mixture combusts by autoignition after start of combustion of the air-fuel mixture by the ignition, and the controller adjusts a heat amount ratio in accordance with an operation state of the engine through change of the ignition timing, the heat amount ratio representing an index associated with a ratio of an amount of heat generated when the air-fuel mixture combusts by flame propagation with respect to a total amount of heat generated when the air-fuel mixture combusts in the combustion chamber.

A control apparatus for an engine includes an engine, a state quantity setting device, a spark plug, and a controller. The spark plug ignites air-fuel mixture at predetermined ignition timing so that unburned air-fuel mixture combusts by autoignition after start of combustion of the air-fuel mixture by the ignition, and the controller adjusts a heat amount ratio in accordance with an operation state of the engine through change of the ignition timing, the heat amount ratio representing an index associated with a ratio of an amount of heat generated when the air-fuel mixture combusts by flame propagation with respect to a total amount of heat generated when the air-fuel mixture combusts in the combustion chamber.

A control system for a compression-ignition engine is provided, which includes an engine having a combustion chamber, an injector configured to supply fuel into the combustion chamber, a spark plug, a swirl valve provided to an intake passage of the engine, and a controller connected to the injector, the spark plug and the swirl valve to control them. The controller includes a processor configured to execute a swirl adjusting module to adjust an opening of the swirl valve to generate a swirl flow inside the combustion chamber, a fuel injection timing controlling module to control a fuel injection timing and control the injector to retard the fuel injection timing as an engine speed increases, and a combustion controlling module to control the spark plug to ignite at a given ignition timing after the swirl generation and the fuel injection, so that partial compression-ignition combustion is performed.

A control system for a compression-ignition engine is provided, which includes an engine having a combustion chamber, an injector configured to supply fuel into the combustion chamber, a spark plug, a swirl valve provided to an intake passage of the engine, and a controller connected to the injector, the spark plug and the swirl valve to control them. The controller includes a processor configured to execute a swirl adjusting module to adjust an opening of the swirl valve to generate a swirl flow inside the combustion chamber, a fuel injection timing controlling module to control a fuel injection timing and control the injector to retard the fuel injection timing as an engine speed increases, and a combustion controlling module to control the spark plug to ignite at a given ignition timing after the swirl generation and the fuel injection, so that partial compression-ignition combustion is performed.

In an internal combustion engine which performs a homogeneous lean combustion mode and a stratified lean combustion mode, there is provided a new internal combustion engine control device capable of obtaining a stable combustion state by decreasing influences of delay of an air flow and a degree of change of a transient state and smoothly performing switching between the homogeneous lean combustion mode and the stratified lean combustion mode. Accordingly, in the present invention, when switching between the stratified lean mode in which a compression stroke injection is performed by a direct injection injector 7 and the homogeneous lean combustion mode in which an intake stroke injection is performed by the direct injection injector 7 is performed, a predetermined delay time t is provided from at least a switching operation of a tumble control valve 6, a switching operation between the compression stroke injection and the intake stroke injection is performed, and the delay time t is set so as to correspond to a magnitude of the degree of change L of the transient state. A switching timing between the compression stroke injection and the intake stroke injection is controlled according to the flow delay of an air control system such as the tumble control valve 6 and the degree of change L of the transient state, and thus, it is possible to improve combustion stability in a combustion chamber.

In an internal combustion engine which performs a homogeneous lean combustion mode and a stratified lean combustion mode, there is provided a new internal combustion engine control device capable of obtaining a stable combustion state by decreasing influences of delay of an air flow and a degree of change of a transient state and smoothly performing switching between the homogeneous lean combustion mode and the stratified lean combustion mode. Accordingly, in the present invention, when switching between the stratified lean mode in which a compression stroke injection is performed by a direct injection injector 7 and the homogeneous lean combustion mode in which an intake stroke injection is performed by the direct injection injector 7 is performed, a predetermined delay time t is provided from at least a switching operation of a tumble control valve 6, a switching operation between the compression stroke injection and the intake stroke injection is performed, and the delay time t is set so as to correspond to a magnitude of the degree of change L of the transient state. A switching timing between the compression stroke injection and the intake stroke injection is controlled according to the flow delay of an air control system such as the tumble control valve 6 and the degree of change L of the transient state, and thus, it is possible to improve combustion stability in a combustion chamber.

A control system for a compression ignition engine includes a combustion chamber, a throttle valve, an injector, an ignition plug, an EGR system, a sensor device and a controller. The controller includes a first mode module, a second mode module and a changing module configured to change an engine mode from a first mode to a second mode in response to a change demand. The changing module outputs signals to the throttle valve and the injector in response to the demand so that an air-fuel ratio of mixture gas becomes a stoichiometric air-fuel ratio or a substantially stoichiometric air-fuel ratio, and outputs a signal to the EGR system so that an EGR gas amount decreases more than before the demand, and when the EGR gas amount is determined to be decreased to a given amount, the changing module permits that the second mode module starts the second mode.

A control system for a compression-ignition engine includes a combustion chamber, an injector, an ignition plug, a sensor device, and a controller having a circuitry. The ignition plug forcibly ignites mixture gas to start combustion accompanied by flame propagation of a part of the mixture gas, and again ignites remaining unburnt mixture gas at a timing at which the unburnt mixture gas combusts by self-ignition. The controller is configured to execute an ignition controlling module to output an ignition signal to the ignition plug before a target timing so that the unburnt mixture gas self-ignites at the target timing, an ignition timing estimating module to estimate an actual CI timing indicative of a timing at which the unburnt mixture gas actually self-ignited based on an in-cylinder pressure parameter, and an in-cylinder temperature determining module to determine the in-cylinder temperature at a given crank angle based on the estimated result.