An evaporative emissions (EVAP) system for an engine of a vehicle includes an ion sensing system configured to measure a fuel/air ratio (FAR) within cylinders of the engine and a controller configured to, during an engine cold start period, perform open-loop lambda control of the engine including obtaining, from the ion sensing system, the measured FAR within the cylinders of the engine, comparing the measured FAR within the cylinders of the engine to a target FAR within cylinders of the engine, and based on the comparing, adjusting operation of at least one of the EVAP system and fuel injectors of the engine to maintain a stoichiometric operation of the engine, wherein the use of the ion sensing system for open-loop lambda control of the engine eliminates the need for a hydrocarbon (HC) sensor in the EVAP system.

A fuel combustion apparatus 2 according to the present invention includes: a combustion cylinder 4; a fuel feed unit 6 that introduces a swirling flow of an air-fuel mixture into the combustion cylinder; an ignition unit 10 including an igniter 32 located in the combustion cylinder 4; an ion detection unit 12 including a detector 40 located in the combustion cylinder 4; and a control unit 14 that adjusts a mixing ratio of the fuel based on a detection result obtained by the ion detection unit 12. Preferably, the fuel is ammonia. Preferably, the detector 40 is located in the vicinity of the igniter 32.

A method of controlling an engine is provided, the method including the steps of injecting main fuel by a fuel injector during an intake stroke or a compression stroke, providing a mixture gas containing fuel and air inside a cylinder, applying by an ignition device a high voltage between electrodes of a spark plug at a timing when the mixture gas is not ignited, detecting a parameter related to a current value of an electric-discharge channel generated between the electrodes, determining whether the detected parameter is within a range between a first threshold and a second threshold to determine a flowing state of a vortex inside the cylinder, injecting supplemental fuel by the fuel injector after the main fuel injection when the parameter is determined to be outside the range, and igniting the mixture gas by the ignition device using the spark plug after the supplemental fuel injection.

The objective is to provide an internal-combustion-engine controller that can diagnose, at low cost and in real time, respective combustion states of a subsidiary-chamber-type internal combustion engine. An internal-combustion-engine controller according to the present disclosure controls an internal combustion engine having a main combustion chamber and a subsidiary combustion chamber from which a combustion gas is injected into the main combustion chamber through an orifice provided between the main combustion chamber and the subsidiary combustion chamber to ignite a fuel-air mixture in the main combustion chamber; the internal-combustion-engine controller includes an ion detector that detects an ion in the in the subsidiary combustion chamber and a diagnosis and control device that controls fuel supply to the internal combustion engine and diagnoses a combustion state in the main combustion chamber or in the subsidiary combustion chamber, based on an amount of an ion detected by the ion detector.

Methods and systems are provided for operating a cylinder with a series gap igniter coupled to an ion sensing module. In one example, a method may include determining a location of an initial combustion in a cylinder from a series gap igniter based on a pressure rise rate in the cylinder, the ignition spark initiating combustion in the cylinder; and adjusting at least one setting of the cylinder based on the determined location. In this way, combustion stability and efficiency may be increased without increasing a cost and complexity of the engine.

A method for monitoring an engine cylinder in an internal combustion engine includes, for each engine cycle, detection of the ionisation current generated in the cylinder in a predetermined time interval of a combustion cycle, generation of a signal representing the ionisation current and comparing a maximum value of the signal with a threshold value. Successively, the value of one or more parameters associated with the signal can be changed with respect to an equal number of corresponding reference values when the maximum value of the signal exceeds the threshold value, to reduce the maximum value of the signal in the time interval of a successive combustion cycle. The presence of water in the cylinder can be determined when the maximum value of the signal exceeds the threshold value for a predetermined first number of combustion cycles occurring within a predetermined period of time.

A method and system for reducing cycle to cycle variation of an engine is provided. The system may determine fuel injection characteristics and predict a gas burning rate or flame speed based on the fuel injection characteristics. The system may adjust an ignition timing in response to the predicted gas burning rate within the same engine cycle.

A method of controlling an amount of recirculated exhaust gas to a cylinder of an internal combustion engine is disclosed. The method comprises the steps of increasing the amount of recirculated exhaust gas, if a current exhaust temperature of the engine is above a first threshold temperature, and reducing the amount of recirculated exhaust gas, if a combustion stability parameter of the engine drops below a first stability threshold value. The present disclosure further relates to a computer program, a computer-readable medium, a control arrangement, an internal combustion engine, and a vehicle.

A method for extracting characterizing features from an ion current trace retrieved from spark plugs of cylinders of an internal combustion engine, comprises the steps of: i. dividing the ion current signal into crank angle subintervals; 5 ii. calculating a measure of ion current in each crank angle subinterval; and iii. Performing a calculation on the measure of ion currents from different subintervals such that the result of the calculation is dimension free. Further it relates to a method of monitoring combustion processes where a plurality of ion current signals from a number of spark plugs (4A, 4B) are 10 retrieved and used in combination.

A method for ignition control in a combustion chamber of an internal combustion engine by means of acquiring an electric signal relating to ionizing currents emitted in said combustion chamber, comprising a step of detecting a substantially stepped trend of said electric signal and a consequent step of inhibiting a corrective action of an ignition advance and/or of a fuel injection limitation curve in the combustion chamber.