Controlled starting and braking of an internal combustion engine
AssigneeBose Corporation, a Delaware corporation
InventorsDavid Hanson, Jun Ma, Benjamin Peterson
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An internal combustion engine may be provided with independently controllable valves, fuel injectors and ignition elements that may be used to start the engine without a separate auxiliary device such as an electric starter motor. The engine may fire the cylinders under a startup mode of control at the same time it fires the cylinders under a normal mode of control in order to smooth the transition from start up to normal operating mode. Additionally, an internal combustion engine may use independently controllable valves to stop the engine and ensure that one or more of the pistons come to rest at a position which allows them to be used to restart the engine.
Claims30
A method of controlling a speed of an internal combustion engine that has valves that are each controllable independently of engine rotation, the method comprising:
- determining a first speed of the engine;
- estimating an amount of pumping work corresponding to an altering of the speed of the engine to a second speed;
- and
- altering the speed of the engine to the second speed by actuating one or more of the valves based on the estimated amount of pumping work..
A method of controlling a speed of an internal combustion engine having cylinders and a controllable valve actuation system for operating one or more valves of the cylinder of the engine, the method comprising:
- determining a range of speeds in which the speed of the engine can be altered to zero in one braking stroke using pumping work such that the crankshaft will stop within a predetermined range of crankshaft angles;
- and
- actuating the valve actuation system to produce pumping work in at least one of the cylinders to alter engine speed to zero in one braking stroke when the engine's speed has reached a target speed that is within the determined range of speeds.
An internal combustion engine comprising:
- a cylinder housing a piston attached to a crankshaft;
- intake and exhaust valves;
- a valve control module that will respond to a command to alter the engine speed by adaptively controlling the valves to produce pumping work to alter the engine speed to zero such that the crankshaft will stop within a predetermined range of crankshaft angles.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.