The present invention relates to a control device and a control method for an internal combustion engine equipped with a variable compression ratio mechanism. The control device sets an air charging efficiency as an engine load equivalent value and performs setting of a determination value used for misfire diagnosis, setting of an ignition timing, an estimation of a catalyst temperature, or the like. In the control device, when a compression ratio is higher than the basic compression ratio, and the theoretical thermal efficiency is high, the air charging efficiency is corrected to be increased, to perform the control on the basis of the corrected air charging efficiency. Furthermore, in a torque control that sets a target air charging efficiency on the basis of a torque command value, when the compression ratio is higher than the basic compression ratio, the target air charging efficiency is reduced.

In a method for a model-based determination of a temperature distribution of an exhaust gas post-treatment unit, a differentiation is made between steady operating states and non-steady operating states by taking into account the axial and the radial temperature distribution, and, on the basis of virtual segmentation of the post-treatment unit, in particular the radial heat transfer to the surroundings is taken into account in the model-based determination for steady operating states, and for non-steady operating states the heat transfer from the exhaust gas which flows axially through the post-treatment unit to the segments is taken into account by a heat transfer coefficient k.

A straddle-type vehicle comprises a supercharging device which compresses intake-air to be sent to a combustion chamber of an engine; a catalyst provided in an exhaust passage through which an exhaust gas emitted from the engine flows; and a control section which controls the engine, wherein the control section performs an increase suppressing control for suppressing an increase in an exhaust gas temperature, in a case where the control section estimates that the exhaust gas temperature has exceeded an increase suppressing temperature set to be equal to or lower than a catalyst permissible temperature.

In an opposed-piston engine which includes a catalytic aftertreatment device in its exhaust system an exhaust gas condition indicating a catalyst temperature of the aftertreatment device is monitored. When the catalyst temperature is near or below a light-off temperature, a catalyst light-off procedure is executed to elevate the temperature of the catalyst.

A method for controlling a vehicle propulsion system. More particularly, the method estimates a future, upcoming driving condition and controls the vehicle propulsion system to operate the prime mover in a specific operation mode based on a determined regeneration level of a particle filter for the estimated future, upcoming driving condition.

A controller for an internal combustion engine, a control method for an internal combustion engine, and a memory medium are provided. The controller executes a deactivation process that deactivates combustion control in a specified one of cylinders. A compensation process operates a power generation device that produces driving torque applied to a driven wheel so as to compensate for insufficiency of the driving torque of a vehicle caused by the deactivation process. A prohibition process prohibits the deactivation process when it is determined that compensation by a predetermined amount or larger by the compensation process cannot be performed.

Various methods and arrangements for controlling catalytic converter temperature are described. In one aspect, an engine controller includes a catalytic monitor and a firing timing determination unit. The catalytic monitor obtains data relating to a temperature of a catalytic converter. Based at least partly on this data, the firing timing determination unit generates a firing sequence for operating the engine in a skip fire manner. Another aspect of the invention relates to an engine exhaust system that can help expedite the heating of a catalytic converter.

A method to control a road vehicle during a slip of the drive wheels, which are caused to rotate by an internal combustion engine provided with a plurality of cylinders arranged in two banks, and with a plurality of fuel injectors each injecting fuel into a corresponding cylinder. The control method comprises the steps of: detecting a slip of at least one drive wheel; and controlling the internal combustion engine, only during a slip of at least one drive wheel, with a signalling law, which causes the internal combustion engine to work in an abnormal manner so as to generate an abnormal vibration and/or an abnormal noise, which can be perceived by the driver. The internal combustion engine has two twin control units, each of which is associated with a corresponding bank, controls all and the sole injectors of its own bank and actuates the signalling law completely independently of and autonomously from the other control unit.

A control apparatus for the internal combustion engine has a multicore processor mounted with a plurality of the cores, calculates various tasks regarding an operation of the internal combustion engine, and distributes the tasks to the plurality of the cores respectively to perform a calculation, and a controller that makes the number of cores for use in the calculation smaller while fuel cutoff is carried out than before the fuel cutoff is carried out. The controller selects, as a designated core, at least one of the cores for use in a specific calculation associated with combustion of the internal combustion engine. The controller stops the designated core from being used while fuel cutoff is carried out. As the specific calculation associated with combustion, for example, it is possible to mention a combustion forecasting calculation of a cylinder model, a temperature forecasting calculation of a catalyst temperature estimation model, and a fuel adhesion amount forecasting calculation of a fuel adhesion model.

A control device includes a feedback controller that determines an operation amount of an actuator by feedback control such that an actual value of a state quantity becomes closer to a target value, and a reference governor that modifies the target value such that an amount of change in the state quantity per unit time is equal to or less than an upper limit value β. The reference governor calculates a modified target value by adding one of 2ζβ/ω.sub.n and β/{(T.sub.2/T.sub.1).sup.T.sup.2.sup./(T.sup.1.sup.−T.sup.2.sup.)−(T.sub.2/T.sub.1).sup.T.sup.1.sup./(T.sup.1.sup.−T.sup.2.sup.)} to a current value of the state quantity (ζ, ω.sub.n: an attenuation coefficient, a natural angular frequency of a model formula in a case where a dynamic characteristic of a closed-loop system is modeled as a dead time plus second-order vibration system, T.sub.1, T.sub.2 =−ω.sub.n.sup.−1(−ζ±√{square root over ((ζ.sup.2−1))}.sup.−1), and determines the smaller one of the modified target value and an original target value as a final target value of the state quantity.