A method, for a direct injection engine, for dividing a fuel injection corresponding to an engine cycle into minimum sub-injections, including: determination of a desired maximum number of sub-injections by dividing a mass of fuel to be injected during the engine cycle by a minimum injectable mass and rounding down to the nearest integer; lower bounding of the desired maximum number by an authorized maximum number of sub-injections; verification that an injection duration, for such a desired maximum number of sub-injections, is less than a duration of a possible injection window and decrementation of the desired maximum number, otherwise iteration until a positive verification.

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.

An engine according to an embodiment includes at least one cylinder, at least one piston disposed in the at least one cylinder, a plurality of fuel injection valves disposed on the at least one cylinder, the plurality of fuel injection valves including a first fuel injection valve having a predetermined total hole area and a second fuel injection valve having a total hole area smaller than the total hole area of the first fuel injection valve, and a control device for controlling the first fuel injection valve and the second fuel injection valve according to a load of the engine.

Methods and systems are provided for controlling a vehicle engine to reduce engine knock and increase fuel efficiency by reducing hydrocarbon breakthrough. In one example, a method may include adjusting a compression ratio of a variable compression engine in response to hydrocarbon breakthrough above a threshold from a fuel vapor canister of an evaporative emissions system.

Disclosed is a four-stroke direct injection engine comprising a camshaft, and exhaust valve, and a control system. The control system is configured to change the timing of the camshaft to advance a closing of the exhaust valve, control a first fuel injection step during a compression stroke of the piston, control a second fuel injection step during a power stroke of the piston, and control a third fuel injection step, after the second fuel injection step, during the power stroke of the piston.

Some embodiments described herein relate to a method of operating a compression ignition engine. The method of operating the compression ignition engine includes opening an intake valve to draw a volume of air into a combustion chamber, closing an intake valve, and moving a piston from a bottom-dead-center (BDC) position to a top-dead-center (TDC) position in the combustion chamber at a compression ratio of at least about 15:1. The method further includes injecting a volume of fuel into the combustion chamber at an engine crank angle between about 330 degrees and about 365 degrees during a first time period. The fuel has a cetane number less than about 40. The method further includes combusting substantially all of the volume of fuel. In some embodiments, a delay between injecting the volume of fuel into the combustion chamber and initiation of combustion is less than about 2 ms.

Methods and systems are provided for a fuel injector diagnostic. In one example, a method may include modifying an injection pattern to determine a relative fuel mass error of an injector. A fuel injector correction may be determined based the relative fuel mass error.

A system, method and circuit restricts the amount of a first fuel being provided to a duel-fuel engine, for example a diesel—natural gas engine; wherein a secondary circuit is provided, in parallel, to the circuit formed between the engine control unit, first fuel injector, and ground comprising a dummy load, and a normally closed switch inserted in the first fuel injection circuit; such that when the normally open switch is in a closed state the dummy load provides a resistance to the second sub-circuit, such that a total resistance in the second sub-circuit is equal to a total resistance in the first sub-circuit when the normally closed switch is in a closed state.

A method to estimate the temperature of an electromagnetic actuator, which entails a preliminary step in which to define a first threshold value for the current or for the voltage; and define a characteristic curve of the actuator family in the plane temperature/time needed to reach the threshold value; a step in which to carry out a reference measurement, in which, using the characteristic curve, a reference time needed by the electromagnetic actuator to reach the first threshold value is associated with a known reference temperature; and a step in which to carry out a series of measurements in which to determine the time needed by the electromagnetic actuator to reach the first threshold value, calculate the deviation between the time needed by the electromagnetic actuator to reach the first threshold value and the reference time; and determine the temperature of the electromagnetic actuator, using the characteristic curve, by associating the temperature of the electromagnetic actuator with the sum of the deviation and of the reference time.

An engine system is provided, including a controller which controls devices of an engine at a given engine speed so that, when a demanded engine load is a first load, a mass ratio (G/F) of intake air inside a cylinder (containing fresh air and burnt gas) to fuel is a first G/F and mixture gas inside the cylinder combusts by flame-propagation, when the demanded load is a second load (<the first load), the G/F is a second G/F (>the first G/F) and an injection center-of-gravity is at a timing such that the entire mixture gas combusts by CI combustion, and when the demanded load is between the first and second loads, the G/F is at a third G/F (between the first and second G/Fs) and the injection center-of-gravity is at a later timing such that at least part of the mixture gas combusts by the CI combustion.