A temperature-sensitive fluid fan clutch device includes an oil reservoir chamber in a case supported by a rotating shaft that has a drive disk fixed thereto. Plural dams are provided outward of the drive disk, and oil circulating flow passages contiguously to the dams extend between a torque transmission chamber and the oil reservoir chamber. A valve opens and closes an oil circulation flow hole of the oil reservoir chamber due to a change in temperature of a temperature-sensitive body. An oil effective contact area in a torque transmission gap between a drive side and a driven side is varied to control rotation torque transmission from the drive side to the driven side. An oil collection valve member independently opens and closes at least one of the oil circulating flow passages. The temperature-sensitive fluid fan clutch device inhibits a cold “drag” phenomenon and reduces fan power loss and fuel consumption.

An engine cooling control apparatus, a system including the same, and a method thereof provide an engine cooling control apparatus including a processor configured to calculate a required fan rotation speed for controlling a cooling fan based on proportional integral (PI) control and a storage configured to store data acquired by the processor and an algorithm for driving the processor. The processor classifies a plurality of control regions depending on a coolant temperature and adjusts and outputs the required fan rotation speed for each of the control regions.

A system for controlling a fan of a vehicle engine. The system comprises: i) a fan configured to selectively cool the vehicle engine; and ii) an engine control module configured to: a) turn on the fan when the engine temperature exceeds a selected temperature threshold; b) determine when the vehicle engine is operating in an engine braking mode; and c) in response to the engine operating in the engine braking mode, turn on the fan when the engine temperature is below the selected temperature threshold. The engine control module turns the fan off as a means of hardware protection of the fan clutch even during engine braking modes.

A method, system, and apparatus are provided for optimizing control of the rotational speed of a fan in a vehicle so as to reduce the aerodynamic drag of a vehicle in a given operating parameter, and accordingly, to improve fuel efficiency of operation of the vehicle. Certain exemplary embodiments include determining an optimized speed of rotation of a cooling fan of the vehicle for reducing overall fuel demand in given operating conditions, and controlling rotation speed of the fan at the optimized speed in order to minimize fueling demand of a prime mover of the vehicle.

A controller includes: an acquisition unit that acquires a deviation between an estimated amount and a target amount of a working fluid in the labyrinth chamber, and a fluid amount parameter corresponding to the estimated amount; and a control unit that executes feedback control including at least integral control of the deviation so as to control a regulation mechanism. When the fluid amount parameter is equal to or greater than a threshold, the control unit executes the feedback control in a state where the integral control is stopped.

A system for controlling a fan of a vehicle engine. The system comprises: i) a fan configured to selectively cool the vehicle engine; and ii) an engine control module configured to: a) turn on the fan when the engine temperature exceeds a selected temperature threshold; b) determine when the vehicle engine is operating in an engine braking mode; and c) in response to the engine operating in the engine braking mode, turn on the fan when the engine temperature is below the selected temperature threshold. The engine control module turns the fan off as a means of hardware protection of the fan clutch even during engine braking modes.

A control device for a clutch, which is provided between an operation machine and a drive shaft of an engine, controls an operation of a valve member for opening and closing an oil supply port through which an oil reservoir chamber and a torque transmission chamber communicate. The control device refers to a desired rotation speed of a rotating body of the operation machine and to an acquired rotation speed of the rotating body of the operation machine, calculates a proportional term manipulated variable based on a deviation between an angular acceleration of the rotating body and a desired angular acceleration, and controls the operation of the valve member on the basis of this calculated proportional term manipulated variable.

A controller includes: an acquisition unit that acquires a deviation between an estimated amount and a target amount of a working fluid in the labyrinth chamber, and a fluid amount parameter corresponding to the estimated amount; and a control unit that executes feedback control including at least integral control of the deviation so as to control a regulation mechanism. When the fluid amount parameter is equal to or greater than a threshold, the control unit executes the feedback control in a state where the integral control is stopped.

A controller includes: a control unit configured to calculate a control command value of an opening degree of a solenoid valve to control an opening degree of the solenoid valve; and an acquisition unit configured to acquire an estimated amount and a target amount of a working fluid in a labyrinth chamber, and a rotation speed of a drive shaft. The control unit calculates a final control command value based on a feedback control command value and a feedforward control command value, and controls the solenoid valve, the feedback control command value being calculated based on deviation between the estimated amount and the target amount, the feedforward control command value being used to maintain a rotation speed of a fan constant based on the estimated amount and the rotation speed of the drive shaft.

A controller of a fan coupling device includes: an acquisition unit that acquires an acceleration parameter and a deviation parameter; a control unit that controls a regulation mechanism; a prediction unit that predicts that hunting occurs in the rotation speed of the fan, when an operating point of the fan expressed with the deviation parameter and the acceleration parameter belongs to a predicted region; and a restraining unit that executes, when the hunting is predicted to occur, a hunting restraining process of executing at least one of lowering an integral gain of a feedback control to be lower than when the hunting is not predicted to occur and increasing a derivative gain of the feedback control to be higher than when the hunting is not predicted to occur.