Method and apparatus for controlling the power output of a homogenous charge internal combustion engine
AssigneeBrunswick Corporation
InventorsBlake R. Suhre, Jeffery C. Ehlers
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A control method and apparatus for regulating the power output of an engine in a marine propulsion system provides the storage of several sets of numerical values in which each numerical value in each set is associated with a particular cylinder of the engine. In addition, each numerical value in each set represents the number of consecutive firing events experienced by each cylinder prior to the occurrence of a skip fire event. A numerical value of zero indicates continuous skip fire events for a particular cylinder and a numerical value equivalent to some predetermined maximum numerical value, such as 255, represents a continuous firing regime for the associated cylinder.
Claims20
A method for controlling the power output of an internal combustion engine with a manual throttle control, comprising the steps of:
- providing a homogeneous air/fuel charge originating at a location external to a plurality of cylinders of said engine;
- storing a plurality of sets of numerical values, each set of numerical values being associated with a desired power output magnitude of said engine and comprising a plurality of said numerical values, each of said plurality of numerical values within each of said plurality of sets being associated with a specific one of said plurality of cylinders of said engine;
- determining a desired power output of said engine;
- measuring an actual power output of said engine;
- comparing said desired power output with said actual power output;
- selecting, based on the relative magnitudes of said desired and actual power outputs, a selected one of said plurality of sets of numerical values;
- and
- selectively activating and deactivating each of said plurality of cylinders of said engine as a function of said selected one of said plurality of sets of numerical values.
Apparatus for controlling the power output of an internal combustion engine with a manual throttle control, comprising:
- means for providing a homogeneous air/fuel charge originating at a location external to a plurality of cylinders of said engine;
- means for storing a plurality of sets of numerical values, each set of numerical values being associated with a desired power output magnitude of said engine and comprising a plurality of said numerical values, each of said plurality of numerical values within each of said plurality of sets being associated with a specific one of said plurality of cylinders of said engine;
- means for determining a desired power output of said engine;
- means for measuring an actual power output of said engine;
- means for comparing said desired power output with said actual power output;
- means for selecting, based on the relative magnitudes of said desired and actual power outputs, a selected one of said plurality of sets of numerical values;
- and
- means for selectively activating and deactivating each of said plurality of cylinders of said engine as a function of said selected one of said plurality of sets of numerical values.
A method for controlling the power output of an internal combustion engine with a manual throttle control, comprising the steps of:
- providing a homogeneous air/fuel charge originating at a location external to a plurality of cylinders of said engine;
- storing a first set of numerical values, each of said numerical values within said first set of numerical values being associated with an associated one of a plurality of cylinders of said engine, said first set of numerical values being associated with a first desired power output of said engine;
- storing a second set of numerical values, each of said numerical values within said second set of numerical values being associated with an associated one of said plurality of cylinders of said engine, said second set of numerical values being associated with a second desired power output of said engine;
- determining a desired power output of said engine;
- selecting a preferred one of said first and second sets of numerical values;
- and
- selectively activating and deactivating each of said plurality of cylinders of said engine as a function of said preferred one of said first and second sets of numerical values.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.