A control apparatus of an internal combustion engine having an injector which directly injects fuel into a combustion chamber of a cylinder and a spark plug which ignites an air-fuel mixture containing the fuel injected by the injector includes an air-fuel ratio acquisition unit acquiring an air-fuel ratio of the air-fuel mixture in the combustion chamber, a nitrogen oxide concentration acquisition unit acquiring a concentration of nitrogen oxide in a combustion gas exhausted from the internal combustion engine, and a stratification level estimation unit estimating a level of stratification as a measure of level of distribution of the air-fuel mixture at a predetermined air-fuel ratio or below in a vicinity of the spark plug. The stratification level estimation unit estimates the level of stratification according to the air-fuel ratio acquired by the air-fuel ratio acquisition unit and the concentration of nitrogen oxide acquired by the nitrogen oxide concentration acquisition unit.

The purpose of the present invention is to provide a control means which, with respect to injection control of a fuel injection valve, reduces deviation between an injection quantity of fuel injected by the fuel injection valve and a target value, the deviation being caused due to a pressure in a combustion chamber, as an injection timing in a compression stroke of an engine is retarded. The present invention pertains to a fuel injection valve that performs a plurality of injections in one engine cycle, and performs control in such a manner that injection pulse signals and are transmitted to a drive circuit, and from the drive circuit for the fuel injection valve that outputs drive current waveforms for fuel injection, the injection pulse signal in the compression stroke when the injection timing is retarded is shortened.

In a catalyst warming-up control, a first time injection is performed by an injector in an intake stroke. A second time injection is performed with an amount smaller than the first time injection in an expansion stroke after a compression top dead center. In the catalyst warming-up control, an interval from the start of the ignition period of an spark plug to the completion of the second time injection is controlled by the ECU so that the initial flame generated from an air-fuel mixture containing the fuel spray injected by the first time injection is brought into contact with the fuel spray injected by the second time injection.

A split cycle internal combustion engine comprising a compression cylinder accommodating a compression piston; a combustion cylinder accommodating a combustion piston; a crossover passage between the compression cylinder and the combustion cylinder arranged to provide working fluid to the combustion cylinder; a controller arranged to determine a peak temperature of combustion in the combustion cylinder based on a received indication of a peak temperature of combustion in the combustion cylinder; and a coolant system arranged to regulate a temperature of the working fluid supplied to the combustion cylinder; wherein, in response to determining that the peak temperature of combustion exceeds a selected threshold, the controller is configured to control the coolant system to regulate the temperature of the working fluid supplied to the combustion cylinder so that a peak temperature of combustion in the combustion cylinder is less than the selected threshold.

A control device for an internal combustion engine is configured to carry out a lean combustion of which excess air factor is 2.0 or more by injecting fuel for creating a homogeneous air-fuel mixture from a first fuel injection valve into a combustion chamber of an engine main body, injecting ignition fuel for creating an ignition air-fuel mixture near an electrode portion of a spark plug from a second fuel injection valve, and igniting the ignition air-fuel mixture, and when occurrence of knocking is detected based on a detection value of a knock sensor during the lean combustion, apply retard correction to each of an ignition timing of the spark plug and an injection timing of the ignition fuel set corresponding to an engine operating state, and apply increase correction to an injection amount of the ignition fuel.

A fuel injection strategy and ignition timing for a spark-ignition direct fuel injection engine are selected in response to monitored engine load in relation to a plurality of load regions. This includes selecting a preferred ignition timing based upon the engine load, and selecting a first fuel injection event that is executed post-ignition, wherein the first fuel injection event delivers a set fuel mass at a preset timing relative to the preferred timing for the spark ignition event regardless of the engine load. A first pre-ignition fuel injection event is selected, and includes a second fuel mass being injected at a second fuel injection timing, wherein an end-of-injection timing of the first pre-ignition fuel injection event is at a preset timing relative to the preferred ignition timing regardless of the engine load, and wherein the second fuel mass is determined in relation to the engine load.

Additional approaches for the reduction of particulate emissions in gasoline engines using optimized port+direct injection are described. These embodiments include control of the amount of directly injected fuel so as to avoid a threshold increase in particulates due to piston wetting and reduction of cold start emissions by use of air preheating using variable valve timing.

A control system of an internal combustion engine which performs diffusion combustion by compression autoignition on fuel injected in a main injection in at least a partial operating range and which performs stratified combustion by spark ignition using a spark plug on fuel injected prior to the main injection. The control system determines whether or not the diffusion combustion occurs and performs combustion by spark ignition using the spark plug on the fuel injected in the main injection when it is determined that the diffusion combustion does not occur.

A method for operating a combustion engine is disclosed. In an embodiment, the method includes: generating several sparks to ignite a fuel-air mixture in a combustion chamber by an ignition device of the combustion engine, determining a combustion duration of at least one of the sparks, detecting a deviation of an actual operation from a target operation of the combustion engine at least depending on the combustion duration, compensating for the deviation by implementing at least one measure which influences a combustion of the fuel-air mixture in the combustion chamber, determining the combustion duration of the chronological first of the sparks, allocating the first spark to a first spark type or to a second spark type depending on the combustion duration, and implementing the at least one measure if at least one value which characterizes a frequency of one of the spark types exceeds a threshold value.

Main fuel injected from the fuel injector into the combustion chamber is made to auto-ignite. During the compression stroke after injection of the main fuel and before the auto-ignition of the main fuel, first auxiliary fuel and second auxiliary fuel are successively injected from the fuel injector. By controlling the injection timing of the first auxiliary fuel, the ignition timing of the spark plug, and the injection timing of the second auxiliary fuel, the first auxiliary fuel is made to burn by flame propagation combustion by the ignition action of the spark plug, the second auxiliary fuel is made to be injected inside the flame propagation combustion region, and the second auxiliary fuel is made to burn by diffusive combustion before auto-ignition of the main fuel occurs.