Patent Application
20100161199
The present invention relates to internal combustion engines in road vehicles, and is more particularly concerned with a fuel consumption saving system and a method of operation thereof.
Currently and for many years emphasis has been placed upon the need for fuel efficiency in the field of internal combustion engines when used for traction purposes industrially, commercially or domestically, the principal objective being to save fuel in the face of rising production, transport and processing costs.
Accordingly, attention has been paid to engine performance characteristics against the backdrop of operating conditions, both actual and simulated. Considerable work has been undertaken in this latter regard in terms of laboratory testing of engine units and indeed on test tracks where actual working environments can be experienced.
Fuel conservation is especially important for road vehicles, which employ compression or spark ignition engines, to target greater efficiency with concomitant fuel savings at a maximum or optimum level.
Various proposals have tended to focus upon engine performance as a priority in terms of for example the smooth transmission of power, with perhaps subsidiary benefit as far as fuel saving is concerned. One such example is to be found in U.S. Pat. No. 6,022,292 to Goodnight who proposes a vehicle adaptive load-based powershift transmission shift control system for a diesel engine, which responds to various conditions, including the operational status of an auxiliary function driven by the engine, namely a power take off. In such a system relevant parameters are measured and appropriate adjustments are made to the powershift transmission in accordance with load factor values.
There remains a need to provide an ad hoc fuel consumption saving system, which takes account of engine conditions including load factor with the object of optimizing fuel usage.
It is therefore a general object of the present invention to provide an improved fuel consumption saving system, and a method of operation thereof.
A specific object of the present invention is to provide such a system which seeks to achieve an actual reduced fuel consumption in accordance with sensed data, and with simulated comparative data to generate appropriate values to be transmitted via a control unit to the engine to function on a reduced and optimal fuel consumption level, depending on a selected operative configuration.
In a first aspect of the invention, there is provided a fuel consumption saving system for use in combination with an electronic control unit of an internal combustion engine of a motor vehicle, the motor vehicle having a plurality of condition and engine parameter sensors connected to the electronic control unit operating the engine, the system comprising a controller adapted for connection to the electronic control unit and to a preselected first set of the sensors and a preselected second set of the sensors, the controller determining, based on respective first sensor values sensed by the first set of the sensors, an actual engine load factor and calculating, for the actual engine load factor, a modified engine load factor corresponding to a predefined efficiency region of operation of the engine, the controller modifying respective second sensor values sensed by a second set of the sensors to actual optimal values therefor corresponding to the modified engine load factor and transmitting the actual optimal values to the electronic control unit, whereby in use the electronic control unit accepts the actual optimal values for the operation of the engine at the predefined efficiency region.
The first set of sensors selected from the following which are provided on the engine per se and/or its transmission elements: exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) angle sensor, barometric atmospheric pressure sensor, boost pressure sensor, fuel temperature sensor, air intake temperature sensor, fuel and oil rail pressure sensors, differential pressure sensor, coolant temperature sensor, and throttle position sensor.
The system of the present invention essentially comprises a pre-programmed silicon chip, which may be embedded in the electronic control unit, and in this respect the system may conveniently be an integral part of the electronic control unit (ECU). In the alternative, the system of the present invention may be separate from the ECU and accordingly may be retrofitted to engines having existing control systems.
According to a second aspect of the invention, there is provided a method for saving fuel consumption of an internal combustion engine of a motor vehicle having a plurality of condition sensors and engine parameter sensors connected to an electronic control unit operating the engine, the method comprising the steps of:
Other objects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from a careful reading of the detailed description provided herein, with appropriate reference to the accompanying drawings.
Further aspects and advantages of the present invention will become better understood with reference to the description in association with the following drawings wherein:
With reference to the annexed drawing the preferred embodiments of the present invention will be herein described for indicative purpose and by no means as of limitation.
Referring now to
The system 10, i.e. controller 10, receives a first set of first sensor values of the sensed data from a preselected first set of sensors 12 along lines 16 and determines the actual load factor (ALF) therefrom with the actual load factor module or step, shown as 17. The first set of sensors 12 are selected from the following listing, by way of example only:
A pre-recorded set of sampled values for sensors 12 is stored in a memory 18 of system 10 and is accessible by modules 17, 19, 28, and 20. The memory 18 may be any type of electronic data storage appropriate for an integrated circuit, including read only memory (ROM), erasable programmable read only memory (EPROM), flash memory, or the like. Thus, the memory store 18 holds information relating to the vehicle and engine characteristics. The information contained in the memory 18 feeds into an actual minimum load factor (AMLF) module or step, shown as 19, as well as a selected load factor (SLF) module or step, shown as 28, which together determine, for example calculate, a modified load factor (MLF) corresponding to a predefined efficiency region of operation of the engine 14. The MLF, at actual optimal values module or step, shown as 20, is used to modify second sensor values collected from a predetermined second set of sensors 12 to the values calculated as relating to the MLF to give actual optimal values. These optimal or altered values, shown as dotted lines 21 running through 20, are then transmitted as controlling data to the ECU 13 which in turn controls the engine 14 accordingly, thereby yielding a modified predetermined fuel consumption saving, corresponding to the predefined efficiency region of operation of the engine 14, whilst maintaining a satisfactory traction performance of the engine 14. For the predetermined second set of sensors 12, the sensors 12 may be selected from the following non-exhaustive listing:
Accordingly, one may recognize that the first and second predetermined sets 16, 21 of sensors 12 could be identical to one another.
The memory 18 contains typical pre-recorded respective sampled values of the different parameters for the first and/or second sensor values sensed for a plurality of different road/environmental conditions. These sampled values were previously recorded with the actual engine 14 performing in the respective conditions. The different road/environmental conditions for which respective sampled values are stored and recorded may include the following, without being limited to them:
The MLF is determined as follows. If optional operative configuration selection module or step, shown as 20, is deployed, a selected operative configuration for the engine 14 is selected by a user, for example using a switch, from a plurality of possible configurations, each operative configuration corresponding to a respective predetermined or predefined efficiency region of operation for the engine 14 and corresponding selected MLF. Typically, the selected operative configuration varies between a maximum fuel savings operative configuration, which is as close as possible to a predetermined maximum efficiency region of operation of the engine 14, intermediate operative configurations having lower predetermined regions of operations, and an non-operative (unmodified) configuration, in which case the operative configuration for the engine 14 and second sensor values are not modified, for example when the system 10 is deactivated. When the system 10 is in non-operative configuration, the sensed data from the preselected first and second sets of parameters 16, 21 are unaltered and transmitted directly to the ECU 13.
Regardless of the selected operative configuration for engine 14, unless the user selects an unmodified operative (i.e. non-operative) configuration, the ALF is received at 19 and the AMLF, corresponding as close as possible to a predetermined maximum efficiency region of operation of the engine based on said actual load factor and, optionally, respective sampled values, is calculated. If the selected operative configuration is the maximum fuel savings operative configuration, then the AMLF is the selected load factor (SLF) used as the MLF at 20. Otherwise, at 28 the AMLF is modified based on the first sensed values, the selected operative configuration, and, optionally, the sampled values, to the corresponding SLF, which is used as the MLF at 20. At 20, the second sensor values are received along line 21 and the second sensor values are modified or adjusted to the values calculated as relating to the MLF, in conjunction with the sampled values, to give actual optimal values. These optimal or altered values (shown as dotted lines running through box 20) are then transmitted as controlling data to the ECU which in turn controls the engine 14 accordingly, thereby yielding a selected fuel consumption saving whilst maintaining a satisfactory traction performance of the engine. In order to assess the actual optimal values, the memory 18 contains typical values of the different parameters for a plurality of different road/environmental conditions that were previously recorded with the actual engine performing in the respective conditions.
It has been found in practice that the use of the fuel consumption saving system of the instant invention can save as much as 30% on a volume basis, when considering the actual minimum load factor (AMLF), the fuel consumption saving will obviously be less upon a selected operative configuration other than the maximum fuel savings operative configuration, if applicable.
It is to be understood that the respective first and second sets of sensors may vary in their selection.
The system, i.e. controller, 10 of the present invention essentially comprises a pre-programmed silicon integrated circuit, i.e. a silicon chip, which may be embedded in the electronic control unit 13, and in this respect the system may conveniently be an integral part of the electronic control unit (ECU), as represented by the stippled line 13. In the alternative, the system 10 of the present invention may be separate from the ECU 13 and accordingly may be retrofitted to engines having existing control systems. Operations at 17, 19, 20, 28 may be implemented pre-programmed modules of steps or instructions coded into the chip.
While a specific embodiment has been described, those skilled in the art will recognize many alterations that could be made within the spirit of the invention, which is defined solely according to the following claims.
This patent application claims benefit of U.S. Provisional Application for Patent Ser. No. 61/193,749 filed on Dec. 22, 2008, which is incorporated herein by reference.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 61193749 | Dec 2008 | US |
