A method includes supplying a first quantity of a first fuel to an engine and supplying a charge including a second fuel and air to the engine. The first fuel is different from the second fuel. The method further includes mixing the first fuel with the charge, supplying a second quantity of the first fuel to the engine, and igniting at least a portion of the first and second fuels in response to supplying the second quantity of the first fuel.

The present invention is a fuel injection method for a compression-ignition internal-combustion engine running in single-fuel or multi-fuel mode. The engine has at least a cylinder (10), a piston (16) sliding in the cylinder, a combustion chamber (34) comprising two mixing zones (Z1, Z2) which are defined on one side by upper face of the piston comprising a projection extending in the direction of the cylinder head and located in a center of a concave bowl (48), a cylinder head (12) carrying fuel injection (30) projects liquid fuel (Fuel1) in at least two fuel jet sheets (36, 38) with different sheet angles (A1, A2), and intake (24, 26, 28) for an oxidizer and burnt gas exhaust (18, 20, 22).The method, in a single-fuel mode, injects liquid fuel (Fuel1) into lower zone (Z1) and/or upper zone (Z2) of the combustion chamber and, in a multi-fuel mode, provides in the chamber mixing of an oxidizer with another fuel (Fuel2) and of injection of liquid fuel (Fuel1) into lower zone (Z1) or both zones (Z1, Z2) of the combustion chamber.

A method of operating a vehicle powertrain includes determining a selected powertrain operational mode. A demand fraction is determined. An internal combustion engine (ICE) is to output a maximum power when a gaseous fuel is conveyed to an injector of the ICE at a source pressure greater than a cutoff pressure. The source pressure in a container in fluid connection with the injector is determined. The gaseous fuel is received at the source pressure by the injector to inject the gaseous fuel into the ICE for combustion in response to the source pressure, demand fraction, or selected powertrain operation mode meeting a first set of criteria. The injector is prevented from injecting the gaseous fuel into the ICE and the powertrain is driven from an alternative power source in response to the source pressure, demand fraction, or selected powertrain operation mode meeting a second set of criteria.

A method of protecting a direct injection fuel injector in a multi-fuel engine, the method includes selectively operating the multi-fuel engine with a directly injected fuel introduced through the direct injection fuel injector and a second fuel; when fuelling the multi-fuel engine with the second fuel, selectively commanding a fuel system protection technique when determining that the direct injection fuel injector requires cooling, an age of directly injected fuel is above a predetermined value, transmission status has changed, an engine shutdown event has occurred and a global positioning system signal indicates an engine shutdown event will occur; wherein the fuel system protection technique includes commanding that the directly injected fuel be a portion of total fuel consumed and reducing quantities of the second fuel that is injected so that total fuel consumed equals a desired amount of fuel measured on an energy basis.

A control device calculates an estimate of negative intake pressure based on the relationship between the rotation speed of a crankshaft and a throttle opening degree (Step S24). Then, the control device sets the estimate PE of the negative intake pressure, which is calculated in Step S24, to a greater value as combustion efficiency of CNG used in engine operation becomes higher (Step S25). When the corrected estimate PE of the negative intake pressure becomes smaller than or equal to a reference value PTh (Step S26: YES), the control device starts a negative pressure recovery procedure (Step S27).

In a method for controlling an internal combustion engine, during a standard operating mode a specified first fuel quantity is injected by actuating a first fuel injector during a first actuation period and by an accompanying opening of a first valve needle, and a specified second fuel quantity is injected by actuating a second fuel injector during a second actuation period and by an accompanying opening of a second valve needle, and (i) during a first calibration operating mode, a calibration actuation of the first fuel injector is performed while an actuation of the second fuel injector is carried out, or (ii) during a second calibration operating mode, a calibration actuation of the second fuel injector is carried out while an actuation of the first fuel injector is carried out.

A method involves controlling a fuel injector to inject a first quantity of a fuel into a cylinder from a plurality of cylinders, of an engine and detecting a first value of a parameter associated with the engine. The method further involves controlling the fuel injector to inject a second quantity of the fuel different from the first quantity of the fuel, into the cylinder of the engine and detecting a second value of the parameter associated with the engine. The method also involves comparing the first value with the second value and detecting a hardware anomaly associated with the engine based on the comparison of the first value with the second value.

A system for estimating richness of a gaseous mixture in a combustion chamber of an internal combustion engine of a motor vehicle power plant, including a mechanism injecting an additional combustible gas into a fresh air intake circuit of the engine, a mechanism measuring concentrations of the additional gas in the fresh air intake circuit and in an engine exhaust gas circuit respectively, a mechanism determining a ratio between the measured concentration of the additional gas in the intake circuit and the measured concentration of the additional gas in the exhaust circuit, and a mechanism estimating the richness of the gaseous mixture in the combustion chamber of the engine from the determined ratio.

A safety brake system for a trailer comprises a brake unit to brake the trailer. An actuation unit comprises a mount secured to a front end of the trailer. A brake interface is operatively supported by the mount for displacement with respect to the trailer. The brake interface is displaceable toward a deactivation state in which the brake interface releases the brake unit from braking the trailer. A probe is operatively supported by the mount for displacement with respect to the trailer, the probe being displaceable between a hitching state in which the probe is adapted to contact the hitch of a vehicle, and a blocking state in which the probe blocks a hitch coupler of the trailer to prevent hitching of the trailer to a vehicle A biasing unit biases the probe against the hitch of the trailer in the hitching state and toward the blocking state. A mechanism operatively connects the brake interface to the probe, the mechanism retaining the brake interface in the deactivated state when the probe is in the hitching state, the mechanism releasing the brake interface from the deactivated state when the probe moves to the blocking state. A method for deactivating a safety brake is also provided.

One exemplary embodiment is a system comprising a multi-fuel engine structured to selectably combust varying proportions of a first type of fuel and a second type of fuel, and an electronic control system structured to control the provision of at least one of the first type of fuel and the second type of fuel to the engine using a multi-factor cost optimization. The multi-factor cost optimization may account for a plurality of factors including one or more environment factors, location factors, mission factors, warranty factors, operator-specified factors and/or fleet-specified factors.