Noise, vibration and harshness reduction in a skip fire engine control system
AssigneeTula Technology, Inc.
InventorsMark A. Wilcutts, Xi Luo, Anastasios Arvanitis
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A variety of methods and arrangements for reducing noise, vibration and harshness (NVH) in a skip fire engine control system are described. In one aspect, a firing sequence is used to operate the engine in a skip fire manner. A smoothing torque is determined that is applied to a powertrain by an energy storage/release device. The smoothing torque is arranged to at least partially cancel out variation in torque generated by the skip fire firing sequence. Various methods, powertrain controllers, arrangements and computer software related to the above operations are also described.
Claims37
A method for operating a vehicle, the method comprising:
- detecting if an operating temperature of an internal combustion engine of the vehicle is below a threshold indicative of a warm operating temperature;
- ascertain if the vehicle is idling when the operating temperature of the internal combustion engine is below the threshold indicative of the warm operating temperature;
- operating the internal combustion engine in a skip fire mode such that some firing opportunities of cylinders of the internal combustion engine are tired while other firing opportunities of the cylinders are skipped while the vehicle is idling and the operating temperature of the internal combustion engine is below the threshold indicative of the warm operating temperature;
- and
- applying a smoothing torque to a powertrain of the vehicle while the internal combustion engine is operating in the skip fire manner, the vehicle is idling and the operating temperature of the internal combustion engine is below the threshold indicative of the warm operating temperature.
A vehicle, comprising
- an internal combustion engine and a powertrain;
- a skip fire controller configured to operate the internal combustion engine in a skip fire mode such that cylinders of the internal combustion engine are fired during first firing opportunities while the cylinders are skipped during second firing opportunities;
- and
- an energy storage/release device arranged to apply a smoothing torque to the powertrain when the internal combustion engine is operating in the skip fire mode, the vehicle, and an operational temperature of the internal combustion is below a warm operating temperature threshold.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.