A fuel system is disclosed. The fuel system may include at least one fuel injector, the at least one fuel injector having an injector body and one or more piezoelectric sensors located in the injector body. The fuel system may include a controller configured to: obtain, from the one or more piezoelectric sensors, one or more pressure measurements associated with a fuel injection process; determine a timing of the fuel injection process based on the one or more pressure measurements; determine an adjustment to the timing based on a comparison of the timing to a reference timing; and adjust the timing of the fuel injection process based on the determined adjustment.

A method for controlling at least one switchable valve, a brake impulse that slows down the valve movement being produced during the controlling of the at least one valve. At least one parameter of the brake impulse determines the position and/or the duration of the brake impulse. A parameter is modified, and the reaction of a measurement quantity or of a characteristic feature derived from the measurement quantity is evaluated.

A drive unit of a fuel injection device includes a driver circuit. The driver circuit opens and closes a valve element of the fuel injection device by supplying a drive current to the fuel injection device. The driver circuit supplies the drive current to open the valve element and sets the drive current to zero in an intermediate lift area. The intermediate lift area is an area is which a lift amount of the valve element is smaller than a maximum target lift amount.

Provided is an internal-combustion-engine control device that minimizes a detection error of a cylinder pressure sensor used in a control of an internal combustion engine. The internal-combustion-engine control device is an electronic control unit (ECU) 1 for an internal combustion engine 100 that includes a cylinder pressure sensor 140 for detecting cylinder pressure in a combustion chamber. The ECU 1 includes an overall controller 81 configured to correct an output signal S2 transmitted from the cylinder pressure sensor 140 in a cylinder 150. The overall controller 81 corrects the output signal S2 from the cylinder pressure sensor 140 in accordance with a correction period calculated based on drive of components of the internal combustion engine 100, such as a fuel injector 400.

Methods and systems are provided for reducing errors in estimated fuel rail pressure incurred at the time of a scheduled injection event due to engine-driven cyclic fuel rail pressure changes. In one example, a pulse-width commanded during a scheduled injection event is determined as a function fuel rail pressure samples collected over a moving window that is customized for the corresponding fuel injector. In another example, the commanded pulse-width is determined as a function of an average fuel rail pressure sampled during a quiet zone of injector operation and predicted fuel rail pressure altering events occurring between the quiet zone and the scheduled injection event.

A control unit controls a combustion state of an internal combustion engine in accordance with a drive torque requested by a driver. The control unit performs a switching control to switch at least a combustion state between lean-burn combustion and stoichiometric combustion. A monitor unit performs torque monitoring to determine abnormality of a request torque, which is requested to the internal combustion engine, and a generated torque of the internal combustion engine based on the request torque and an estimation torque, which is an estimation value of an actual torque of the internal combustion engine. A combustion state determining unit determines whether the combustion state in the control unit is the lean-burn combustion or the stoichiometric combustion. A computing unit computes the estimation torque in accordance with the combustion state determined by the combustion state determining unit.

A method and device including an interface, a memory, and a processor for the control of a fill level of a catalytic converter for an internal combustion engine of a motor vehicle. A setpoint variable is ascertained as a function of an expected operating variable for the fill level, and the expected operating variable is determined as a function of information from at least one further sensor, which acquires information about an operating state of the motor vehicle.

The purpose of the present invention is to detect variations between the quantities of fuel injected into cylinders by fuel injection devices and correct the fuel injection quantity variation while minimizing the computational load on a drive device and the level of performance required of a pressure sensor. A drive device for fuel injection devices according to the present invention performs control wherein movable valves are driven so that predetermined quantities of fuel are injected by applying, for the duration of a set energization time, a current that will reach an energization current to solenoids of a plurality of fuel injection devices which open/close fuel flow paths. The drive device is characterized in that the set energization time or energization current is corrected on the basis of a pressure detection value from a pressure sensor that is attached to a fuel supply pipe disposed upstream of the plurality of fuel injection devices.

A method of operating a fuel injector includes determining a fuel pressure and a total fuel mass M.sub.TF to be injected per combustion cycle, defining first and second pulse widths PW.sub.1 and PW.sub.2 corresponding to first and second commanded fuel masses CM.sub.1 and CM.sub.2 wherein CM.sub.1+CM.sub.2=M.sub.TF, actuating the injector for the first and second pulse widths, detecting an opening delay for the injector, and storing the opening delay. The method may further include increasing PW.sub.1 and decreasing PW.sub.2 by a predetermined amount, repeating selected steps until PW.sub.2 is less than or equal to a predetermined minimum pulse width, changing the fuel pressure by a predetermined pressure amount, cycling through selected steps until the fuel pressure reaches a predetermined target fuel pressure, and commanding the injector to open earlier than a normally commanded opening time by a lead time based on stored opening delay data.

A method for detecting the malfunction of a software solution configured to generate data representing the instant of interruption of fuel injection of an internal combustion engine. The method comprises acquiring data by a data acquisition device which is connected to a measurement device fixed to an injector body and configured to emit data representing closure instants of an injection nozzle, recording the data generated by the software solution and the data emitted by the measurement device, over a predetermined duration, synchronizing the data generated by the software solution and the data emitted by the measurement device, and comparing the data generated by the software solution and the data emitted by the measurement device, the software solution being considered to be malfunctioning when they do not satisfy predefined criteria.