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US 11,619,179 B2Granted
Methods and system for controlling an engine with two throttles
AssigneeFord Global Technologies, LLC
InventorsRohit Bhat, Rob Ciarrocchi, Adam J. Richards, Conner Cecott
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Systems and methods for operating an engine that includes two throttles that are arranged in parallel to deliver air into a single intake manifold are described. In one example, a first throttle and a second throttle are opened according to a value of a variable that changes as a function of a requested engine air flow.
Claims15
An engine operating method, comprising:
- via a controller, adjusting engine air flow via a first of two throttles arranged in parallel in an engine intake system while a second of the two throttles arranged in parallel is fully closed in response to a first requested engine air flow during a first condition;
- via a controller, adjusting engine air flow via the second of two throttles arranged in parallel in an engine intake system while the first of the two throttles arranged in parallel is fully closed in response to the first requested engine air flow during a second condition;
- via the controller, providing a first fraction of a second requested engine air flow via the first of the two throttles and providing a second fraction of the second requested engine air flow via the second of the two throttles in response to the second requested engine air flow, where the first fraction is greater than the second fraction;
- and
- via the controller, providing a third fraction of a third requested engine air flow via the first of the two throttles and providing a fourth fraction of the third requested engine air flow, the third fraction equal to the fourth fraction, in response to a third requested engine air flow, the first requested engine air flow less than the second requested engine air flow, the second requested engine air flow less than the third requested engine air flow.
2 more elements
An engine system, comprising:
- an engine including a first throttle and a second throttle arranged in parallel with the first throttle, the first throttle and the second throttle controlling air flow to a common intake manifold;
- and
- a controller including executable instructions stored in non-transitory memory that cause the controller to adjust air flow through a dominant throttle in response to a split ratio and a requested engine air flow, and that cause the controller to adjust air flow through a subordinate throttle in response to the split ratio and the requested engine air flow, the split ratio and the requested engine air flow determined via the controller, where the split ratio decreases as engine air flow increases, where the first throttle is the dominant throttle and the second throttle is the subordinate throttle during a first condition, where the first throttle is the subordinate throttle and the second throttle is the dominant throttle during a second condition, the first condition different from the second condition, and where a subordinate throttle angle is zero when the requested engine air flow is less than a threshold value during the first condition and the second condition.
An engine operating method, comprising:
- via a controller, partially opening a first of two throttles while a throttle angle of a second of the two throttles is zero in response to an air flow request, the air flow request determined via the controller, the two throttles arranged in parallel;
- via the controller, partially opening the second of the two throttles while a throttle angle of the first of the two throttles is zero after a most recent reduction of the engine air flow request.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.