A method of controlling a fuel injection of a diesel engine for performing a plurality of fuel injections to cause a plurality of combustions inside a cylinder in one combustion cycle, is provided, which includes acquiring an oxygen concentration inside the cylinder, performing, on compression stroke, the plurality of fuel injections at substantially even injection intervals while increasing the injection intervals as the oxygen concentration decreases, and performing, after the plurality of fuel injections, another fuel injection including a larger injection amount than in the plurality of fuel injections, near a top dead center of the compression stroke.

A method for determining an air volume in a combustion chamber of a fuel-injection internal combustion engine, especially during a load change condition, including synchronizing a throttle valve setpoint signal to an operating state criterion (t.sub.n); determining a curve dynamics of the throttle valve position taking into account the synchronized throttle valve setpoint signal; determining an actual air volume quantity at an ACTUAL time point (t.sub.0); determining a desired time point (t.sub.0+t); predicting a further air volume quantity for the desired time point (t.sub.0+t) and determining a total air volume quantity from the ACTUAL air volume quantity and the further air volume quantity for the desired time point (t.sub.0+t).

A method and apparatus for in situ operating an internal combustion engine comprising determining at least one combustion characteristic for a combustion chamber of the internal combustion engine, comprising an actual heat release signal for the combustion chamber; and inputting the actual heat release signal into a diagnostic logic tree for diagnosing changes in combustion characteristics due to at least one of: a malfunctioning fuel injector, a start of combustion timing error; and a change in fuel quality; and performing a mitigation technique to compensate for the changes in combustion characteristics.

An internal combustion engine controller for an internal combustion engine comprising a memory and a processor. The memory is configured to store a plurality of control maps, each control map defining a hypersurface of actuator setpoints for controlling an actuator of the internal combustion engine based on a plurality of input variables to the internal combustion engine controller. The processor comprises a map updating module, a parameter updating module and an engine setpoint module. The map updating module is configured to calculate an optimised hypersurface for at least one of the control maps based on a performance objective function of the internal combustion engine, sensor data from the internal combustion engine, and the plurality of input variables, wherein the performance objective function includes parameters. The parameter updating module is configured to update a parameter of the performance objective function upon determining a change in an operating condition of the internal combustion engine. The parameters comprise one or both of: engine parameters associated with an engine model; and cost parameters associated with a cost function. The map updating module is further configured to update the hypersurface of the control map based on the optimised hypersurface. The engine setpoint module is configured to output a control signal to each actuator based on a location on the hypersurface of the respective control map defined by the plurality of input variables.

Methods and systems are provided for indicating a presence or absence of a source of degradation stemming from one of an intake manifold, exhaust system, or engine of an engine system. In one example, a method comprises rotating the engine unfueled and indicating the source of degradation based on both an intake air flow and an exhaust flow, as compared to baseline intake air flow and baseline exhaust flow. In this way, a source of degradation may be pinpointed, which may increase a lifetime of a vehicle engine system, reduce undesired emissions, and which may increase customer satisfaction resulting from shorter time spent on diagnosing such a source of degradation.

A drive system for driving a motor vehicle has an internal combustion engine and an operating mode coordination device for determining and controlling the operating mode of the internal combustion engine. The drive system has a function coordination device for coordinating secondary functions of the drive system, the function coordination device being designed for generating, based on the coordination of the secondary functions, an operating mode request for the operating mode coordination device for controlling the operating mode of the internal combustion engine, and transmitting it to the operating mode coordination device. The invention further relates to a motor vehicle having a drive system, and a method for operating a drive system of a motor vehicle.

A method for venting a fuel tank system of an internal combustion engine is provided, wherein the fuel tank system includes at least a fuel tank, a fuel vapor filter that is fluidically connected to an opening to the environment, a vent line that leads from the fuel tank to the fuel vapor filter, a purge gas line that leads from the fuel vapor filter to a fresh gas tract of the internal combustion engine, a purge gas conveying device that is integrated into the purge gas line, and an exhaust tract with a lambda sensor integrated therein. Control of the purge gas conveying device is carried out based on the measuring signal of the lambda sensor in order to regulate a volume flow of the purge gas in the purge gas line. The method may advantageously be carried out in an internal combustion engine that additionally includes a lambda controller. Since such an internal combustion engine should include a lambda sensor anyway for operating such a lambda controller, the method allows regulation of the venting of the fuel tank system of the internal combustion engine without an additional sensor system, which is advantageous for the manufacturing costs for such an internal combustion engine.

A gas sensor includes a housing including a locking step part, a sensor body including a locked part locked to the locking step part, a sealing member filled between an inner periphery of the housing and an outer periphery of the sensor body on a base end side of the locked part, an insulating member disposed on the base end side of the sealing member, and a circular disc spring pressing a base end surface of the insulating member. The housing includes a caulking part caulking the circular disc spring to cover the circular disc spring. The elastically compressed circular disc spring is disposed between the caulking part and the insulating member. At least part of a base end side pressing part, at which the caulking part presses the circular disc spring, is disposed between an inner and outer periphery edges of the base end surface of the insulating member.

Upon receiving a request to stop an internal combustion engine, processing circuitry of a fuel supply device opens a relief valve by increasing a fuel pressure in a delivery pipe to a specified pressure or greater before stopping the internal combustion engine. The processing circuitry determines whether a fuel pressure sensor is normal based on a result of comparison between a fuel pressure in the delivery pipe detected by the fuel pressure sensor and a fuel pressure determination value after the fuel pressure in the delivery pipe starts to decrease as a result of opening the relief valve.

Methods and systems are provided for catalyst control. In one example, a method may include controlling an air-fuel ratio downstream of a catalyst by adjusting fuel injection. The fuel injection is adjusted based on control parameters updated online through system identification at a point of feedback control instability.