Patent Application
20140156174
This application claims priority to and the benefit of Korean Patent Application No. 10-2012-0140416 filed in the Korean Intellectual Property Office on Dec. 5, 2012, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a technique for controlling a dual-injector engine which uses two injectors to supply fuel into a combustion chamber and, more particularly, to an apparatus and method for distributing fuel to be injected by the two injectors.
2. Description of the Related Art
Typical engines have a single injector per intake port, and thus, the entire amount of fuel which is supplied into a corresponding combustion chamber is injected by the single injector. Meanwhile, to improve volumetric efficiency to enhance fuel efficiency and reduce harmful exhaust material, as shown in
Meanwhile, fuels injected from the two injectors disposed on the respective intake ports flow differently, while entering the combustion chamber, depending on differences in the position and shape between the two intake ports.
It is to be understood that the foregoing description is provided to merely aid the understanding of the present invention, and does not mean that the present invention falls under the purview of the related art which was already known to those skilled in the art.
Accordingly, the present invention provides a fuel distributor for a dual-injector engine in which two injectors disposed on two respective intake ports that communicate with a single combustion chamber are independently, asymmetrically and cooperatively operated to distribute the amounts of fuel injected from the injectors, whereby the fuel vaporability of a fuel and air mixture may be increased, and the combustion performance of the engine may be increased.
According to one aspect, the present invention provides a fuel distributor for a dual-injector engine that may include: two injectors respectively disposed on two intake ports that communicate with a single combustion chamber; and injector drivers separately disposed to respectively operate the two injectors.
In another aspect, the present invention provides a method of controlling a fuel distributor for a dual-injector engine, including operating injector drivers connected to two injectors disposed on two intake ports that communicate with a combustion chamber to cause the two injectors to have different injection patterns during an intake stroke of the engine.
The above and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will be more clearly understood from the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:
It is understood that the term “vehicle” or “vehicular” or other similar term as used herein is inclusive of motor vehicles in general such as passenger automobiles including sports utility vehicles (SUV), buses, trucks, various commercial vehicles, watercraft including a variety of boats and ships, aircraft, and the like, and includes hybrid vehicles, electric vehicles, combustion, plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, hydrogen-powered vehicles and other alternative fuel vehicles (e.g. fuels derived from resources other than petroleum).
Although exemplary embodiment is described as using a plurality of units to perform the exemplary process, it is understood that the exemplary processes may also be performed by one or plurality of modules. Additionally, it is understood that the term controller/control unit refers to a hardware device that includes a memory and a processor. The memory is configured to store the modules and the processor is specifically configured to execute said modules to perform one or more processes which are described further below.
Furthermore, control logic of the present invention may be embodied as non-transitory computer readable media on a computer readable medium containing executable program instructions executed by a processor, controller/control unit or the like. Examples of the computer readable mediums include, but are not limited to, ROM, RAM, compact disc (CD)-ROMs, magnetic tapes, floppy disks, flash drives, smart cards and optical data storage devices. The computer readable recording medium can also be distributed in network coupled computer systems so that the computer readable media is stored and executed in a distributed fashion, e.g., by a telematics server or a Controller Area Network (CAN).
The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of the invention. As used herein, the singular forms “a”, “an” and “the” are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. It will be further understood that the terms “comprises” and/or “comprising,” when used in this specification, specify the presence of stated features, integers, steps, operations, elements, and/or components, but do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, integers, steps, operations, elements, components, and/or groups thereof. As used herein, the term “and/of” includes any and all combinations of one or more of the associated listed items.
Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. Referring to
In the conventional technique, the single injector driver drives the two injectors which are respectively disposed on the two intake ports that communicate with the single combustion chamber, whereby the two injectors are synchronized to inject fuel rather than being independently operated. Therefore, the conventional technique cannot realize more active, subdivided and harmonious fuel injection. However, in the present invention the injectors 1-1 and 1-2 may be independently operated by the respective injector drivers 3-1 and 3-2. Therefore, the injectors 1-1 and 1-2 may inject fuel into the corresponding combustion chamber different injection times and during different injection durations. Therefore, the present invention may increase fuel vaporability of a mixture to operate the engine more efficiently.
Referring to
A method of controlling the fuel distributor of the dual-injector engine having the above-mentioned construction may include operating, by the engine control unit, the injector drivers 3-1 and 3-2 to inject fuel by the two corresponding injectors 1-1 and 1-2 disposed on the two intake port of each combustion chamber into the corresponding combustion chamber at different numbers of times during an intake stroke of the corresponding cylinder of the engine.
Alternatively, the method may include operating, by the engine control unit, the two corresponding injectors 1-1 and 1-2 disposed in the two intake port of each combustion chamber to have different injection durations during an intake stroke of the corresponding cylinder of the engine.
In other words, according to the method, the two injectors 1-1 and 1-2 disposed on the two respective intake ports that communicate with the corresponding combustion chamber may be independently operated during an intake stroke of the corresponding cylinder of the engine causing the injectors 1-1 and 1-2 to have different fuel injection times or different fuel injection durations and may inject a required amount of fuel into the corresponding combustion chamber in cooperation with each other within an opening period of an intake valve. Specifically, the purpose of the method is to control the injector drivers 3-1 and 3-2 to increase the fuel vaporization.
A combination of the number of injection times, the injection duration and the injection timing may be expressed as an injection pattern. The injectors may be respectively controlled by independent injection patterns and thus, during the opening period of the intake valve of the corresponding combustion chamber, fuel may be injected to optimize vaporization of the mixture.
For reference,
As described above, in a dual-injector engine according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, two injectors disposed on two respective intake ports that communicate with a single combustion chamber may be independently, asymmetrically and cooperatively operated to distribute the amounts of fuel injected from the injectors. Eventually, the fuel vaporability of a fuel and air mixture may be maximized. Thus, the combustion performance of the engine may be increased.
Although the exemplary embodiments of the present invention has been disclosed for illustrative purposes, those skilled in the art will appreciate that various modifications, additions and substitutions are possible, without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention as disclosed in the accompanying claims.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10-2012-0140416 | Dec 2012 | KR | national |
