A system and method for dynamically varying an amount slippage of a Torque Converter Clutch (TCC) provided between an engine and a transmission of a vehicle in response to non-powertrain factors. By varying a slippage output signal, the amount of TCC slippage between the engine and the transmission can be adjusted. Small amounts of slippage, relative to large amounts of slippage, provide (a) improved vehicle fuel economy, but (b) induce more powertrain noise and vibration in the vehicle cabin. By dynamically adjusting the slippage, a tradeoff between improved fuel economy vs. a satisfying driver experience can be realized.

A method of identifying a faulted component in an automotive system including an internal combustion engine managed by an Electronic Control Unit. The internal combustion engine is operated according to a predefined detection routine. A noise signal emitted by the activated internal combustion engine is recorded in a data carrier or memory system. The recorded noise signal is analyzed by a signal treatment algorithm to determine a plurality of vibration modes of the automotive system from the noise signal.; The amplitude of the noise signal is compared at each vibration mode with an acceptable amplitude threshold. A faulted component of the automotive system is determined if the amplitude of the correspondent vibration mode is greater than the acceptable amplitude threshold.

Systems and methods for operating an engine with deactivating and non-deactivating valves are presented. In one example, an estimate of an amount of oil that may intrude into a deactivated cylinder is made. The deactivated cylinder may be reactivated in response to the amount of oil estimated to be in the deactivated cylinder.

Systems and methods for operating an engine with deactivating and non-deactivating valves are presented. In one example, estimates of engine fuel consumption for operating the engine with a plurality of cylinder modes or patterns while a transmission is engaged in different gears are determined and are used as a basis for deactivating engine cylinders.

A method for checking the association of structure-borne noise sensors of an internal combustion engine having a plurality of cylinders, which internal combustion engine can be operated in diesel operation or with individualized gas injection and in the case of which internal combustion engine a structure-borne noise sensor is arranged in the region of each cylinder, wherein the output signals of the structure-borne noise sensors reflect a knock index and are captured by a computing unit, wherein the internal combustion engine is operated in order to perform the method. The output signals of all structure-borne noise sensors are determined during at least one working cycle, which is formed by two revolutions of a crankshaft, in the respective positions of the crankshaft. The output signal of a cylinder is compared with the average value or the median value of the output signals of other cylinders.

An internal combustion engine knock determining device includes a vibration detector that produces a signal corresponding to engine vibration, an intensity computing unit that retrieves vibrational components in a plurality of frequency regions in which vibration intensity peaks are located when knock occurs, a background-noise computing unit that calculates background noise caused by factors other than knock, a frequency computing unit that determines specific frequency regions from which to determine whether knock is occurring by excluding certain frequency regions designated as frequency regions requiring exclusion due to the intensity of false-detection causing noise as a proportion of the background noise in the certain regions, and a knock determining unit that determines the occurrence of knock based on the vibration intensity in the specific frequency regions obtained by excluding the frequency regions requiring exclusion, wherein the number of specific frequency regions is increased to improve the accuracy of knock detection.

To provide a controller and a control method for internal combustion engine which can suppress the increase in the calculation processing load for determining occurrence of the mechanical noise and occurrence of the knocking with good accuracy even when the mechanical noise occurs. When the maximum value of the strength of the component of the second frequency band in the comparison period exceeds the maximum value of the strength of the component of the first frequency band, a controller for internal combustion engine performs a second side stop determination processing that determine whether the knocking occurred, based on the strength of the component of the first frequency band, without using the strength of the component of the second frequency band.

A system for early detection of onset of oscillatory instabilities in practical devices is described. The system consists of a measuring device, an instability detection unit and a control unit. The measuring device is configured to generate signals corresponding to the dynamics happening inside the practical device. The instability detection unit is configured to diagnose the stability of the practical device from the signals that are generated by the measuring device. Further, the control unit is configured to control various operating parameters in the practical device based on the information obtained from the instability detection unit.

A control system for an internal combustion engine is provided with a combustion control part, an operating state judging part judging if an engine operating state is a steady state or a combustion noise is a noise transition state where the combustion noise increases over a predetermined allowable noise value when burning fuel by an ignition-assist self-ignition combustion, and an ozone supply control part controlling the amount of ozone supplied to the combustion chamber by the ozone supply system. The ozone supply control part controls the amount of supply of ozone to a predetermined reference amount when the state is judged to be the steady state and controls the amount of supply of ozone to an amount of supply smaller than the reference amount or makes the amount of supply of ozone zero when the state is judged to be the noise transition state.

A mechanical diagnosis method for combustion abnormality using engine noise includes: calculating an Energy K and a Loudness standard deviation index (N.sub.STD) with Kurtosis analysis by a diagnosis controller 30 from noise data measured together with a signal component by rotation excitation of an engine 10; calculating a plurality of order frequency peak order component values by a Modulation Frequency Transform; and distinguishing a cylinder where abnormal combustion occurs from a cylinder where normal combustion occurs by applying a predetermined threshold to these calculated values, thereby classifying, by Modulation Frequency analysis, problem samples of the rotation excitation and combustion excitation influence of the engine in which the abnormality state determination of the engine has been difficult only with energy distribution while overcoming the limitation of Kurtosis analysis.