The present disclosure relates to internal combustion engines. The teachings thereof may be embodied in methods and devices for controlling the combustion processes taking place in the cylinders of an internal combustion engine. A method for controlling a combustion process in an internal combustion engine may include: measuring an actual camshaft position; measuring the actual rail pressure; calculating a phase correction value based on the measured actual rail pressure and a mass of fuel to be injected; calculating corrected actual camshaft positions based on the measured actual camshaft position and the respective phase correction value; calculating a mass of air depending on the determined corrected actual camshaft position; and calculating a fuel injection mass based on the mass of air determined for each cylinder.

An apparatus and a method for controlling a flow control valve for a high-pressure fuel pump include: a pressure sensor for fuel in a delivery pipe; a control unit for controlling an operation of a flow control valve by controlling a current applied to a coil; a power switching unit for supplying or blocking driving power supplied to the flow control valve based on a control signal of the control unit; and a current adjustment unit electrically connected/disconnected with the flow control valve by the power switching unit to reduce a current supplied to the flow control valve when the current adjustment unit is connected with the flow control valve. Therefore, a noise and a vibration by collision between the plunger and the core upon closing the flow control valve may be attenuated by adjusting a current amount applied to the coil.

Systems and methods are provided herein for tracking degradation of a high-pressure fuel pump. In one example, a fuel system controller is configured to receive an output pressure signal from a pressure sensor, transform the output pressure signal to the frequency domain to generate frequency content of the output pressure signal, and diagnose a condition of a fuel pump based at least in part on the frequency content of the output pressure signal, the fuel pump fluidly coupled to a fuel injector via a common fuel rail, and the fuel injector is operable to inject fuel to a cylinder of an engine.

A method is disclosed of controlling operation of a fuel injector in response to measuring a quantity of fuel injected by the fuel injector from a fuel accumulator to an engine cylinder during operation of a fuel pump that delivers fuel to the accumulator, comprising: determining an average pressure of the fuel accumulator during a first time period before a fuel injection event; predicting a mass of fuel delivered to the fuel accumulator during a pumping event (Q.sub.pump); determining an average pressure of the fuel accumulator during a second time period after the fuel injection event; estimating a leakage of fuel; computing the injected fuel quantity by adding the average pressure during the first time period to Q.sub.pump, and subtracting the average pressure during the second time period and the leakage; and using the computed injected fuel quantity to control operation of the fuel injector.

A decoupling element for a fuel-injection device has a low-noise and pivotable construction. The fuel-injection device includes at least a fuel injector and a receiving bore in a cylinder head for the fuel injector as well as the decoupling element between a valve housing of the fuel injector and a wall of the receiving bore. The decoupling element is in the form of a ring, in particular a closed ring, which has a lower end face that sits on a shoulder of the receiving bore, and which has an upper end face that rises conically from radially outside toward radially inside and is in intimate contact with a spherically curved shoulder area of the valve housing of the fuel injector. The fuel-injection device is particularly suitable for the direct injection of fuel into a combustion chamber of a mixture-compressing combustion engine having externally supplied ignition.

A control device includes a plurality of sound reducing parts that is operated individually, when a predetermined condition for operation is met, at each of a plurality of timings when an operating sound is generated as a result of a movement of a valve body, in one open-and-close period, and that reduces the operating sound, at each of the plurality of the timings, by changing a period of energizing an electromagnetic part to an increase side relative to a normal time, an upper limit determination part that determines whether a required period of energizing the electromagnetic part in the one open-and-close period exceeds a predetermined upper limit value, when all the plurality of the sound reducing parts are operated, and a selectively operating part that selects and operates one or more of the plurality of the sound reducing parts to an extent that the required period of energizing does not exceed the upper limit value, when the upper limit determination part has determined that the required period of energizing exceeds the upper limit value.

A method for operating a fuel delivery device of an internal combustion engine includes switching an electromagnetic actuating device of a volume control valve so as to set a delivery volume. An intensity of an energy that is supplied to the electromagnetic actuating device for switching purposes, in particular of a current supplied to the electromagnetic actuating device and/or a level of a voltage applied to the electromagnetic actuating device, depends at least intermittently on a rotational speed of the internal combustion engine.

A fuel supply device includes an injector, a fuel pressurization device and an ECU. The fuel pressurization device includes an electromagnetic valve. The fuel pressurization device is configured to pressurize a fuel in accordance with opening/closing of the electromagnetic valve and discharge the fuel toward the injector. The ECU is configured: to control the opening/closing of the electromagnetic valve to adjust the fuel amount discharged toward the injector; to execute an operation sound suppression control during a low-load operation of an engine by reducing an opening/closing frequency of the electromagnetic valve and increasing the fuel amount discharged for each opening/closing of the electromagnetic valve; not to execute the operation sound suppression control when a partial lift injection is in progress; and to execute the operation sound suppression control when the partial lift injection is not in progress.

A method for operating an engine in which fuel is supplied to the engine by a fuel pump and by a high-pressure fuel pump, and in which the speed of the fuel pump and/or the electrical current for feeding the fuel pump is controlled in accordance with a requirement variable, taking into account a determination specification. When the engine has changed to an overrun mode of operation, a calibration is performed and the speed of the fuel pump is detected and is maintained. Once the triggering pressure for a calibration valve has been reached, the pump current is detected, a bypass volumetric flow rate of the high-pressure fuel pump is determined during calibration using operating parameters and the triggering pressure for the calibration valve, the determined speed, the bypass volumetric flow rate and the determined pump current are used to calibrate the determination specification.

A fuel pump includes a cylinder that forms a compression chamber which pressurizes a fuel, a plunger that compresses the fuel in the compression chamber, a cam that pushes the plunger, and a driven gear that engages a driving gear to transmit a rotational driving force. A profile of the cam is configured such that a peak arrival range is half or less of a compression range. Cam speed is obtained by differentiating a lift amount of the plunger by a rotation angle of the cam, the compression range is an angle range during which the plunger is pushed in the direction of compressing the fuel, and the peak arrival range is an angle range from a start of the compression range until a most retarded position of a peak of the cam speed.