A control device for an internal combustion engine includes an electronic control unit configured to predict a first intake air amount in a case where an overlapping period in which both of an intake valve and an exhaust valve of a cylinder of the internal combustion engine are open is set to be a first period, predict a second intake air amount in a case where the overlapping period is set to be a second period shorter than the first period with a valve timing of the exhaust valve being advanced, predict that scavenging will occur in the overlapping period in a case where the first intake air amount is greater than the second intake air amount, and predict that the scavenging will not occur in a case where the first intake air amount is equal to or smaller than the second intake air amount.

A vehicle control device includes an engine (10), an engine control mechanism that controls an engine torque, and a PCM (50) that performs vehicle posture control for generating vehicle deceleration by controlling the engine control mechanism to reduce the engine torque upon satisfaction of a condition that a vehicle is travelling and a steering angle-related value related to a steering angle of a steering device increases. When a driver performs an accelerator operation for reducing an accelerator opening during execution of vehicle posture control, the PCM (50) suppresses reduction of a generated torque of the engine due to the accelerator operation.

An internal combustion engine includes: an intake control valve provided on an upstream side of a fuel injection device provided in an intake flow path and configured to adjust an opening degree thereof while maintaining an intake state through the intake flow path; and a controller configured to perform control to adjust the opening degree of the intake control valve, in which the controller is configured to set the intake control valve to a closing direction side such that a pressure between the intake control valve and an intake valve of a combustion chamber increases during a pre-ignition motor drive period until a fuel is supplied to the combustion chamber and first ignited.

To provide a controller and control method for an internal combustion engine capable of estimating a discharge plasma length and the in-cylinder flow speed accurately by easy method. A controller and a control method for an internal combustion engine detects a secondary voltage which is a voltage generated by the secondary coil, calculates a minimum value of secondary voltage during a discharge period, calculates a discharge plasma length based on the secondary voltage and the minimum value of secondary voltage, and calculates an in-cylinder flow speed based on a time change of the discharge plasma length and a Coulomb force.

A blowback air amount is an amount of air that is part of the air that has flowed into a combustion chamber and is blown back into an intake passage before an intake valve closes. If the blowback air amount increases, a controller causes a fuel injection valve to inject fuel by an amount increased with respect to a fuel amount for a case in which the blowback air amount remains constant. The controller sets an increase amount of fuel injected from the fuel injection valve to a greater value when the stoichiometric air-fuel ratio of the fuel injected from the fuel injection valve is small than when the stoichiometric air-fuel ratio of the fuel injected from the fuel injection valve is great.

A control device for an engine includes a valve-stopping mechanism 14b which holds intake and exhaust valves 41, 51 of the first and the fourth cylinders (idle cylinders) of four cylinders in closed states, a throttle valve control unit 115, an ignition period control unit 113, and an ECU 110 which controls the valve-stopping mechanism 14b, the throttle valve control unit 115, and the ignition period control unit 113. The ECU 110 sets a retard amount of the ignition period of the idle cylinder behind the basic ignition period at least in starting the all-cylinder operation in accordance with an amount of burned gas existing in the idle cylinder in switching to the all-cylinder operation from the reduced-cylinder operation.

A vehicle control device includes an engine 10 capable of switching between reduced-cylinder operation and all-cylinder operation, an engine control mechanism that controls an engine torque, and a PCM 50 that executes vehicle posture control for generating vehicle deceleration by controlling the engine control mechanism to reduce the engine torque upon satisfaction of a condition that a vehicle is travelling and a steering angle-related value related to a steering angle of a steering device increases. In addition, this PCM 50 permits the execution of the vehicle posture control when an engine rotation speed is more than or equal to a first rotation speed Ne1 and permits the execution of the reduced-cylinder operation of the engine 10 when the engine rotation speed is more than or equal to a second rotation speed Ne2 that is more than the first rotation speed Ne1.

An exhaust gas purification apparatus includes: a catalyst device that is provided in an exhaust passage of an internal combustion engine; an exhaust ignition device that is provided upstream of the exhaust passage from the catalyst device; and a controller that controls a treatment of heating the catalyst device by adjusting supply of the air-fuel mixture to a region of the exhaust passage where the exhaust ignition device is provided and ignition of the air-fuel mixture by the exhaust ignition device, the controller includes an equivalence ratio setting unit that sets a target value of an equivalence ratio of the air-fuel mixture to a first equivalence ratio larger than 1 until a predetermined first time elapses from a start of supply of the fuel and sets the target value of the equivalence ratio of the air-fuel mixture to a second equivalence ratio smaller than 1 after the first time elapses.

A unit for regulating or controlling a fluid pressure of a fluid has a housing with at least one housing part and an inlet and an outlet for the fluid. A switching film is connected to the housing part and switches at pressure differences of 1 to 250 mbar relative to an ambient pressure acting on the switching film. The switching film regulates, releases or blocks a flow of the fluid between the inlet and the outlet for the fluid. The switching film is made of thermoplastic synthetic material. An opening cross section of the housing part is closed off by the switching film. In a method for fluid-tightly connecting a switching film to a housing part of the unit, a radial outwardly positioned joining region of the switching film is fluid-tightly pressed against the housing part in the region of joining surface.

A method (30) of protecting an internal combustion engine (12) of a vehicle (10) from damage by induction of liquid, the method (30) comprising: detecting (31) liquid in a gas induction system (11) to the engine (12); and causing (32) valve control means (44) to at least perform one or both of the following: inhibiting gas intake into a combustion chamber (47) of the engine (12) during a gas intake stage (50) of a combustion cycle of the combustion chamber (47); causing gas exhaust from a combustion chamber (47) of the engine (12) during a gas compression stage (51) of the combustion cycle of the combustion chamber (47), wherein the valve control means (44) comprises at least one of a hydraulic circuit or an electromagnetic actuator for controlling, at least in part, the inhibiting gas intake into a combustion chamber (47) and/or at least one of a hydraulic circuit or an electromagnetic actuator for controlling, at least in part, the causing gas exhaust from a combustion chamber (47).