A gasoline compression ignition engine, a vehicle and a method of operating a gasoline compression ignition engine. An inlet air management system includes a membrane-based separator and an exhaust gas recirculation flowpath that cooperate to deliver a nitrogen enriched air stream to the engine to help reduce exhaust gas emissions. The separator segregates the incoming air into the nitrogen enriched air stream as well as an oxygen enriched air stream such that the latter can be used for various engine load conditions, as well as for supplemental air for a cabin or related passenger compartment within a vehicle that is powered by the engine. Significantly, during an increase in engine load not associated with the cold start and warm-up conditions, the nitrogen enriched air supply that is used for the exhaust gas emissions reduction is provided at least partially by the nitrogen enriched air stream from the separator, as well as increasingly by the nitrogen enriched combustion product stream from the exhaust gas recirculation flowpath.

Provided herein is a control system for a vehicle. The control system includes an engine including cylinders, each of the cylinders including a fuel injector associated therewith, a vehicle exhaust system coupled in fluid communication with the engine for receiving exhaust gas therefrom, a sensor coupled to the vehicle exhaust system to detect an air-to-fuel ratio of the exhaust gas, and an engine electronic control unit (ECU) communicatively coupled to the sensor and the fuel injector of each cylinder, the ECU including memory and a processor. The ECU is configured to store a sequence of operating states of the cylinders, determine, based on the stored sequence of operating states, expected air-to-fuel ratio (ATFR) value data, receive, from the sensor, actual air-to-fuel ratio (ATFR) value data, determine a difference between the expected and actual ATFR value data, and control operation of the fuel injector based on the determined difference.

Provided is a control device for an engine comprising an engine whose combustion mode is switchable according to an engine operation state, wherein the control device is capable of controlling the engine while suppressing generation of knock noise due to abnormal combustion. The control device comprises: a basic target torque-determining part (61) configured to determine a basic target torque based on a vehicle driving state including manipulation of an accelerator pedal; a torque reduction amount-determining part (63) configured to determine a torque reduction amount based on a vehicle driving state other than the manipulation of the accelerator pedal; a final target torque-determining part (65) configured to determine a final target torque based on the basic target torque and the torque reduction amount; and an engine control part (69) configured to set the combustion mode to a premixed combustion mode or a diffusion combustion mode according to the engine operation state. The engine control part is configured, when the engine operation state changes from a diffusion combustion region to a premixed combustion region, due to a change in the final target torque corresponding to a change in the torque reduction amount, to maintain the combustion mode in the diffusion combustion mode.

When single-injection control is executed, processing for initiating full injection is executed at a crank angle immediately before initiation of each fuel injection among crank angles at crank angle intervals of 30. When multi-injection control is executed, processing for initiating the fuel injection is executed at a crank angle immediately before the initiation of the each fuel injection among crank angles at crank angle intervals of 10.

An object is to achieve stable diesel combustion and improvement in the thermal efficiency of the diesel combustion in an internal combustion engine using a fuel having a relatively high self-ignition temperature. A control apparatus for an internal combustion engine includes a fuel injection valve capable of injecting fuel into a combustion chamber and an ignition device whose position relative to the fuel injection valve is set in such a way that it can ignite fuel spray directly. The apparatus causes pre-injected fuel to burn and generates unburned residue of the pre-injected fuel in the combustion chamber by pre-injection performed at a predetermined pre-injection time during the compression stroke and ignition of pre-spray formed by the pre-injection by the ignition device. Then, the apparatus starts main injection at such a predetermined injection start time before the top dead center of the compression stroke that enables combustion to be started by flame generated by combustion of pre-injected fuel to cause the unburned residue of the pre-injected fuel and the main-injected fuel to burn by causing the unburned residue of the pre-injected fuel and the main-injected fuel to self-ignite and causing at least a portion of the main-injected fuel to burn by diffusion combustion.

An engine having at least a primary and secondary fuel supplies is configured to operate by determining a fueling mode for each of first and second groupings of cylinders, independently. A method, therefore, for operating the engine includes monitoring engine operating parameters with an electronic controller, determining an engine operating point based on the engine operating parameters, calculating a first operating mode of a first cylinder grouping based on the engine operating point, calculating a second operating mode of a second cylinder grouping based on the engine operating point, and selectively activating at least one of a diesel injector, a gaseous fuel injector and a spark device in each engine cylinder separately and selectively for each cylinder of the first and second cylinder grouping based on the engine operating point.

Methods and systems for simultaneously operating port fuel injectors and direct fuel injectors of an internal combustion engine are described. In one example, different duration port fuel injection windows are provided to maximize fuel injection amount and improve accuracy of an amount of fuel injected during a cylinder cycle via port and direct fuel injectors.

An internal combustion engine includes a plasma ignition system having an in-cylinder dielectric barrier-discharge igniter, and a direct-injection fuel injector having an in-cylinder fuel nozzle. The fuel nozzle protrudes into the combustion chamber proximal to the igniter. A controller operatively connects to the internal combustion engine, the plasma ignition system and the fuel injection system. The controller controls the internal combustion engine at an air/fuel ratio that is lean of stoichiometry. The fuel injector injects a first fuel pulse prior to activation of the igniter, and then the igniter initiates a plasma energy pulse. The fuel injector is controlled to inject a second fuel pulse during the plasma energy pulse.

A control apparatus for an internal combustion engine carries out lean combustion to cause flame propagation to a homogeneous air-fuel mixture while drifting primary flames on a tumble flow by injecting fuel for ignition from a second fuel injection valve to a vicinity of an electrode portion and igniting an air-fuel mixture for ignition at a primary ignition timing, and to ignite an air-fuel mixture for accelerating combustion at a secondary ignition timing by injecting fuel for accelerating combustion in a squish area from the second fuel injection valve at a timing before an injection timing of the fuel for ignition and drifting the air-fuel mixture for accelerating combustion in a combustion chamber on the tumble flow. The secondary ignition timing is set as a timing allowing secondary flames produced by igniting the air-fuel mixture for accelerating combustion to be drawn into the squish area by a reverse squish flow.

A controller injects fuel into a cylinder at a high fuel pressure of 30 MPa or higher, at least in a period between a terminal stage of a compression stroke and an initial stage of an expansion stroke when an operating mode of an engine body is at least in a first specified sub-range of a low load range, and at least in a second specified sub-range of a high load range. The controller sets an EGR ratio in the first specified sub-range to be higher than an EGR ratio in the second specified sub-range, and advances start of fuel injection in the first specified sub-range to start of fuel injection in the second specified sub-range.