Method for dynamically determining a firing pattern for an engine with dynamic cylinder activation and a system implementing the method

A system comprising:

• an engine comprising a plurality of cylinders, wherein the engine is responsive to varying loads;
• a cylinder deactivation system configured to selectively deactivate one or more of the plurality of cylinders;
• a processor programmed with a controlled range of engine vibration frequencies and a cost function, wherein the processor is programed to dynamically calculate a firing density responsive to a load on the engine when the load is below a particular load, wherein the processor is programmed to dynamically calculate a cylinder firing pattern that produces the calculated firing density while optimizing produced engine vibrations in the controlled range of engine vibration frequencies according to the cost function, wherein the cylinder firing pattern is a sequence of firing and non-firing events, wherein the model based algorithm uses a phase-angle approach to determine unbalanced engine orders for the cylinder firing pattern;
• and
• a controller configured to control the cylinder deactivation system using the calculated cylinder firing pattern.