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.

An electronic control unit of an internal combustion engine is configured to, when cooling fuel is supplied to a combustion chamber, calculate a target amount of supply of the cooling fuel and calculate a first upper limit injection amount that is an upper limit of an amount of fuel allowed to be injected from a second valve as the cooling fuel, when the target amount of supply is less than or equal to the first upper limit injection amount, supply the cooling fuel in the entire target amount of supply from the second valve to the combustion chamber in a first mode in which single-stage injection is performed, and, when the target amount of supply is greater than the first upper limit injection amount, supply the cooling fuel to the combustion chamber in a second mode in which the cooling fuel more easily diffuses than in the first mode.

The present subject matter relates to a control unit for controlling an internal combustion engine, wherein the internal combustion engine includes at least one cylinder 100, at least one combustion chamber 90 within which a fuel is burned, at least one fuel injector 40, 50, at least one ignition device 60, and an oxygen determination unit 20 configured to determine the content of oxygen in the fuel, wherein the control unit 10 is configured to control the internal combustion engine based on the content of oxygen in the fuel detected by the oxygen determination unit 20.

A process to adjust the ignition timing of an air-fuel mixture in a combustion chamber of an internal combustion engine, the process comprises determining a first quantity indicative of a pressure of the mixture for a cycle of the engine, determining a second quantity indicative of a speed of the engine, determining a third quantity indicative of a first temperature of a conditioning fluid, providing a heat exchange mathematical model for the combustion chamber, which maps the three quantities from the first to the third one onto a fourth quantity indicative of a second temperature of a wall portion around the combustion chamber, estimating the fourth quantity by means of the three determined quantities and by means of the mathematical model, and adjusting the ignition timing as a function of the fourth estimated quantity.

An electronic control unit of an internal combustion engine is configured to control the fuel injection valve and to control a spark plug if necessary such that fuel is combusted by pre-mixture compression ignition combustion or flame propagation combustion. The electronic control unit is configured to perform homogeneous combustion in a flame ignition operation range when switching failure has not occurred, the homogeneous combustion being combustion in which fuel homogeneously diffused into the combustion chamber is ignited using the spark plug and is combusted by flame propagation combustion. The electronic control unit is configured to perform spray-guided stratified combustion in a second operation range when the switching failure has occurred, the spray-guided stratified combustion being combustion in which fuel in the fuel injection path is ignited using the spark plug and is combusted by the flame propagation combustion.

An engine system is provided, which includes an engine, a swirl control valve, and a controller. The engine includes a cylinder, a piston, and a fuel injection valve provided incliningly with respect to an axial direction of the piston and configured to directly inject fuel into the cylinder. The swirl control valve is provided inside an intake passage and generates a swirl flow inside the cylinder at least when the valve closes. When an engine load is below a given threshold, the controller controls the swirl control valve to close, and controls the fuel injection valve to inject fuel during an intake stroke. While the engine load is below the threshold, at a fixed engine speed, the controller controls to advance a fuel injection timing when the engine load is at a first load, compared with at a second load higher than the first load.

An engine system is provided, which includes an engine, a swirl control valve, an EGR passage, an EGR gas adjusting mechanism, and a controller. The engine includes a cylinder, a piston, and a fuel injection valve. The swirl control valve is provided inside an intake passage and generates a swirl flow inside the cylinder when it closes. When an engine load is at or below a given threshold, the controller controls the swirl control valve to close. While the engine load is the threshold or below, the controller controls the EGR gas adjusting mechanism such that, at a fixed engine speed, an increase rate of an EGR gas amount with respect to an increase in the engine load is lower in a first load range than in a second load range, the first load range being on a higher load side of the second load range and including the threshold.

In a lean-burn engine equipped with a turbocharger, a responsiveness of a super-charging pressure in a lean region is enhanced by control of a valve timing of an exhaust valve while a combustion state is restrained from varying. A variable valve mechanism that can change an opening timing of the exhaust valve while keeping a closing timing of the exhaust valve constant, is included in the lean-burn engine. When a target operation point is located in the lean region, and when an actual supercharging pressure is lower than a target supercharging pressure, supercharging pressure increasing control that advances the opening timing while keeping the closing timing constant is executed by operating the variable valve mechanism.

When switching the combustion mode from a stoichiometric mode to a homogeneous lean mode, a controller starts switching of the combustion mode after switching of the opening angle of a tumble control valve is started. When a target operating point of an internal combustion engine lies outside a predetermined operational region that is set in a range that excludes at least a low intake load factor region and includes at least a medium intake load factor and medium engine speed region, the controller sets the waiting time from the start of switching of the opening angle of the tumble control valve to the start of switching of the combustion mode to be longer than when the target operating point lies in the predetermined operational region.

A process to adjust the ignition timing of an air-fuel mixture in a combustion chamber of an internal combustion engine, the process comprises determining a first quantity indicative of a pressure of the mixture for a cycle of the engine, determining a second quantity indicative of a speed of the engine, determining a third quantity indicative of a first temperature of a conditioning fluid, providing a heat exchange mathematical model for the combustion chamber, which maps the three quantities from the first to the third one onto a fourth quantity indicative of a second temperature of a wall portion around the combustion chamber, estimating the fourth quantity by means of the three determined quantities and by means of the mathematical model, and adjusting the ignition timing as a function of the fourth estimated quantity.