An aircraft diesel engine may be operated at a minimal fuel rate. Shaft output power of the engine may be reduced by initiating combustion during the compression stroke. Combustion may be initiated during the compression stroke by advancing fuel injection, splitting fuel injection, and/or manipulating individual injection quantities. Initiating combustion during the compression stroke may slew torque generation to the compression stroke.

A control apparatus for an internal combustion engine is configured, during a slightly stratified-charge lean-burn operation, to: calculate a basic total fuel injection amount based on a required torque; calculate a compression stroke injection amount based on an ignition delay index value; calculate, as a basic main injection amount, a value obtained by subtracting a compression stroke injection amount from the basic total fuel injection amount; calculate, based on an output value of an in-cylinder pressure sensor, an actual specified combustion index value that represents a main combustion speed or a combustion fluctuation rate; calculate a main injection correction term based on a result of a comparison between a target specified combustion index value or a tolerable specified combustion index value, and the actual specified combustion index value; and calculate a main injection amount by adding the main injection correction term to the basic main injection amount.

An internal combustion engine is configured to operate in a homogeneous-charge compression-ignition combustion mode. Operation of the engine includes determining a combustion pressure parameter for each cylinder. Fueling for each cylinder is controlled responsive to a target state for the combustion pressure parameter for the corresponding cylinder. An end-of-injection timing and a corresponding spark ignition timing for each cylinder are controlled responsive to a target mass-burn-fraction point for an engine operating point.

A method for operating an internal combustion engine includes operating at least one cylinder pre-chamber in a homogeneous charge compression ignition (HCCI) combustion mode by providing an air/fuel mixture in the pre-chamber that is fluidly connected to the at least one engine cylinder, creating H and OH radicals in the pre-chamber to achieve an ignition in the at least one pre-chamber, determining whether an ignition timing is advanced or delayed relative to a desired timing, and delaying the ignition when the ignition is advanced relative to the desired timing by cooling the pre-chamber and the at least one engine cylinder.

A method for controlling a corona ignition system in which a corona discharge is produced at an ignition electrode by exciting a resonating circuit with an AC voltage produced by a high-frequency generator. The AC voltage is adjusted to a target value depending on an operating state of the engine. Combustion onset is determined by evaluating an electrical variable of the resonating circuit and the target value of the AC voltage is reduced by a predefined value following a predefined number of engine cycles or a predefined operating period. The determined combustion onset is evaluated in one or more engine cycles. The target value for the momentary engine operating state is then increased if, by evaluation of the combustion onset, it is found that a predefined requirement is no longer met. Otherwise, the reduced target value is stored as a new target value for the momentary engine operating state.

Variable compression ratio engines and methods for homogeneous charge, compression ignition operation. The engines effectively premix the fuel and air well before compression ignition. Various embodiments are disclosed including embodiments that include two stages of compression to obtain compression ratios well above the mechanical compression ratio of the engine cylinders for compression ignition of difficult to ignite fuels, and a controllable combustion chamber volume for limiting the maximum temperature during combustion. Energy storage with energy management are also disclosed.

A device for detecting and monitoring crank shaft rotary speed and position in a four stroke engine, wherein a first and a second sensor are arranged to sense passage of reference marks on a rotatable element or elements. The first sensor is a high precision sensor which is arranged to sense passage of reference marks on a crank shaft flywheel of the engine, and the second sensor is a low speed sensor which is arranged to sense passage of reference marks on the crank shaft flywheel or reference marks or a wheel being associated with a cam shaft of the engine. The invention also concerns a method and a vehicle.

Main fuel injected from the fuel injector into the combustion chamber is made to auto-ignite. During the compression stroke after injection of the main fuel and before the auto-ignition of the main fuel, first auxiliary fuel and second auxiliary fuel are successively injected from the fuel injector. By controlling the injection timing of the first auxiliary fuel, the ignition timing of the spark plug, and the injection timing of the second auxiliary fuel, the first auxiliary fuel is made to burn by flame propagation combustion by the ignition action of the spark plug, the second auxiliary fuel is made to be injected inside the flame propagation combustion region, and the second auxiliary fuel is made to burn by diffusive combustion before auto-ignition of the main fuel occurs.

A control system for an internal combustion engine is provided with a combustion control part, an operating state judging part judging if an engine operating state is a steady state or a combustion noise is a noise transition state where the combustion noise increases over a predetermined allowable noise value when burning fuel by an ignition-assist self-ignition combustion, and an ozone supply control part controlling the amount of ozone supplied to the combustion chamber by the ozone supply system. The ozone supply control part controls the amount of supply of ozone to a predetermined reference amount when the state is judged to be the steady state and controls the amount of supply of ozone to an amount of supply smaller than the reference amount or makes the amount of supply of ozone zero when the state is judged to be the noise transition state.

The invention relates to a control device for an internal combustion engine using the center-of-gravity position of a heat generation rate for combustion control. This control device controls the center-of-gravity position of a heat generation rate to correspond to a reference position in a case where an engine cooling water temperature is equal to or higher than a reference cooling water temperature and controls the center-of-gravity position of a heat generation rate to correspond to a crank angle further on an advance side than the reference position in a case where the engine cooling water temperature is lower than the reference cooling water temperature.