Apparatus and methods for determining start of combustion for an internal combustion engine

Abstract

An apparatus and methods for effectively determining the start of combustion in a cylinder of an internal combustion engine where the start of combustion is calculated by obtaining cylinder pressure data (P), processing the cylinder pressure data (P) into a processed pressure value indicative of the occurrence of SOC, comparing the processed pressure value to a predetermined threshold value, if the processed pressure value crosses the predetermined threshold value, determining that SOC has occurred, and calculating a crank shaft location at which the predetermined threshold value was crossed by the processed pressure value thereby identifying the crank shaft location at which SOC occurred. In alternative embodiments, optional steps may be provided including a verification step, a windowing step, a filtering step, determining occurrence of misfire, and determining occurrence of retarded timing.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.