The present invention relates to a method of controlling a positive-ignition internal combustion engine, in which the ignition advance is controlled (CON) by means of an estimation (EST) of the distribution of the knock measurements (MEAS). This estimation (EST) makes it possible to determine, for these measurements (MEAS), a confidence interval (q.sub.min, q.sub.max) of a predetermined quantile of the distribution of the knock measurements (MEAS).

A method and a device for controlling knocking in an internal combustion engine. A knock signal of a cylinder of the internal combustion engine is measured by a knock sensor and from that, a knock feature is generated. The knock feature is compared to a reference level in order to classify a combustion as a knocking or non-knocking combustion. The reference level is formed in consideration of a plurality of corrected knock features, the corrected knock features being formed from the knock features by determining map values from a program map as a function of operating parameters of the internal combustion engine and linking them additively, or by carrying out a low-pass filtering, or by determining map values from a program map as a function of operating parameters of the internal combustion engine and linking them additively and carrying out a low-pass filtering.

An internal combustion engine includes an anisotropic thermal conductivity member (37, 51) provided on a wall surface defining a cylinder or a wall surface of a cooling water passage on a side of the cylinder, a thermal conductivity of the anisotropic thermal conductivity member in an axial direction of the cylinder being higher than a thermal conductivity of the anisotropic thermal conductivity member in a radial direction of the cylinder, and a thermally insulating member (38. 52) provided on an outer surface of the anisotropic thermal conductivity member with respect to the radial direction of the cylinder.

A method for detecting a damaged-bearing in an engine using a vibration signal may include: separating, by a controller, a vibration signal of the engine detected by a vibration detecting device installed on one side of the engine of a vehicle into a vibration signal caused by combustion knocking and a vibration signal generated in a bearing, extracting a signal in a predetermined natural frequency band from the vibration signal generated in the bearing using a band-pass filter, and processing the extracted signal to a quantified bearing signal using the controller, and comparing the quantified bearing signal with a preset damaged-bearing criterion using the controller to determine whether the quantified bearing signal is equal to or higher than the preset damaged-bearing criterion to determine a damage to the bearing.

A method for detecting a damaged-bearing in an engine using a vibration signal may include: separating, by a controller, a vibration signal of the engine detected by a vibration detecting device installed on one side of the engine of a vehicle into a vibration signal caused by combustion knocking and a vibration signal generated in a bearing, extracting a signal in a predetermined natural frequency band from the vibration signal generated in the bearing using a band-pass filter, and processing the extracted signal to a quantified bearing signal using the controller, and comparing the quantified bearing signal with a preset damaged-bearing criterion using the controller to determine whether the quantified bearing signal is equal to or higher than the preset damaged-bearing criterion to determine a damage to the bearing.

A method for managing knock in a cylinder of an internal combustion engine, in a system including at least one acoustic sensor and a processor, in order to take into account acoustic pollution resulting from a noise, the method including: forming and digitizing the signals of the acoustic sensor, applying a bandpass filter to obtain a filtered noise, determining an adjustable gain-correction function using a gain-correction curve and, depending on the angular position of the end of injection, the point on the gain-correction curve to be used to convert the filtered noise into a corrected knock score, comparing a corrected knock score thus obtained to a knock decision threshold, to correct the timing advance, the gain-correction curve being defined by a calibration value and four angular points obtained by calculation based on the start and end positions of a knock-observation window and on a known characteristic of the noise.

A method and a device are provided for knock recognition of an internal combustion engine, which device Fourier-transforms, weights in frequency-dependent fashion, and sums a signal of a knock sensor in order to produce a first knock signal. Here, from a multiplicity of first knock signals, a concentration point of the multiplicity of the first knock signals is determined, and a first offset value is subtracted from the first knock signal in order to form a second knock signal, the first offset value being ascertained from the concentration point of the multiplicity of the first knock signals, and a second knock signal that has a value below zero being set to the value zero. The further-processed second knock signal is then evaluated as knocking or non-knocking.

A computer-implemented platform may comprise hardware and software configured to estimate knock intensity and/or manage an engine using knock intensity data. A plurality of knock indicators may be used to model a knock response, providing an improved estimate of knock intensity. Knock intensities from a plurality of combustion cycles may be used to estimate a statistical distribution of knock intensities. The statistical distribution may be used to determine an engine tune state. An engine tune state may be modified via the incorporation of prior knock intensity statistics.

An internal combustion engine includes an anisotropic thermal conductivity member (37, 51) provided on a wall surface defining a cylinder or a wall surface of a cooling water passage on a side of the cylinder, a thermal conductivity of the anisotropic thermal conductivity member in an axial direction of the cylinder being higher than a thermal conductivity of the anisotropic thermal conductivity member in a radial direction of the cylinder, and a thermally insulating member (38. 52) provided on an outer surface of the anisotropic thermal conductivity member with respect to the radial direction of the cylinder.

A method and system for predicting the occurrence of a knock which will have a predetermined intensity or higher (intense knock) in an engine that burns an air-fuel mixture of gasoline fuel. The pressure in a combustion chamber is detected during an initial stage of combustion. This pressure is compared with a preset reference value to determine whether or not the cylinder inner pressure exceeds the reference value during the combustion. When the cylinder inner pressure exceeds the reference value, it is predicted that the intense knock will occur before an end of the combustion. If the intense knock is predicted, additional fuel or other material can be injected into the combustion chamber to prevent the occurrence of the intense knock.