Cooling liquid circulation device for internal combustion engine

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10196961-B2
Application number	US-201615213995-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 19, 2016
Priority date	Aug 4, 2015
Publication date	Feb 5, 2019
Grant date	Feb 5, 2019

Abstract

A device seating a valve body with the aid of an urging force of a spring by stopping the operation of a pump, changes over an energization state of a coil of at least one of the liquid shutoff valves which is changed over to the closed-valve state where the coil is energized, and then resumes the operation of the pump. Upon detecting the start of operation of the pump, a valve control unit causes a pump control unit to perform opening-closing force-feed control, where an amount of the cooling liquid force-fed by the pump is set to an amount within such a range that the valve body of the liquid shutoff valves whose coil is energized is not displaced in a valve-opening direction while the valve body of the liquid shutoff valves whose coil is not energized is displaced in the valve-opening direction.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A cooling liquid circulation device for an internal combustion engine provided with a plurality of cooling liquid passages which are connected in parallel to one another and through which cooling liquid for the internal combustion engine circulates, the cooling liquid circulation device comprising:
a pump that is configured to force-feed cooling liquid in the cooling liquid passages at a variable flow rate;
control valves that are provided separately in the plurality of the cooling liquid passages, each of the control valves being configured to block up a corresponding one of the cooling liquid passages, and each of the control valves including a valve body, a spring member and an electromagnet, the valve body being configured to be urged in a valve-opening direction by a flow momentum of cooling liquid, the spring member being configured to constantly urge the valve body in a valve-closing direction, and the electromagnet including a core and a coil and configured to generate a magnetic force for suctioning the valve body in the valve-closing direction; and
an electronic control unit that is configured to
(i) make a changeover, for each of the control valves, between a state where the coil is energized and a state where the coil is not energized,
(ii) stop operation of the pump and seat the valve body by an urging force of the spring member, in making a changeover from an open-valve state of each of the control valves to a closed-valve state of each of the control valves,
(iii) change over an energization state at a time when the coil of each of the control valves changes over each of the control valves to the closed-valve state from the state where the coil is not energized to the state where the coil is energized, and resume operation of the pump,
(iv) perform opening-closing force-feed control where the pump is operating and the coil of at least one of the control valves is not energized, the opening-closing force-feed control being a control for setting an amount of cooling liquid force-fed by the pump to a force-feed amount within such a range that the valve body of at least another one of the control valves whose coil is energized is not displaced in the valve-opening direction while the valve body of the at least one of the control valves whose coil is not energized is displaced in the valve-opening direction regardless of an operating state of the internal combustion engine, when the electronic control unit detects start of operation of the pump, and
(v) control operation of the pump in accordance with the operating state of the internal combustion engine.

2. The cooling liquid circulation device according to claim 1 , wherein
the electronic control unit is configured to control operation of the pump in accordance with the operating state of the internal combustion engine without performing the opening-closing force-feed control, when the electronic control unit detects the start of operation of the pump and the coils of all the control valves are energized.

3. The cooling liquid circulation device according to claim 1 , wherein
the electronic control unit is configured to perform the opening-closing force-feed control by setting the amount of cooling liquid force-fed by the pump to a maximum amount of a variable range, and
the electronic control unit is configured to, when the electronic control unit performs the opening-closing force-feed control, set the magnetic force generated by the electromagnet at a time when the coil is energized, such that each of the control valves generates a suction force that prevents the valve body of each of the control valves from being displaced in the valve-opening direction.

4. The cooling liquid circulation device according to claim 1 , wherein
the pump is a rotary pump, and
the electronic control unit is configured to: when a rotational speed of the pump reaches a predetermined rotational speed that is higher than an upper-limit of the rotational speed of the pump that allows at least one of the control valves whose coil is not energized to be held closed, during performance of the opening-closing force-feed control,
(i) stop performance of the opening-closing force-feed control, and
(ii) control operation of the pump in accordance with the operating state of the internal combustion engine.

Assignees

• Toyota Motor Co Ltd
• Aisin Seiki

Inventors

• Takagi Noboru
• Toyoda Yasunobu
• Watanabe Hirotaka
• Yoshida Masazumi
• Sasaki Ryusuke

Classifications

• F01P5/10

  Pumping liquid coolant; Arrangements of coolant pumps · CPC title

• F01P7/162

  by cutting in and out of pumps · CPC title

• F16K31/0651

  the fluid passing through the solenoid coil · CPC title

• F01P2007/146

  using valves · CPC title

• F01P2060/045

  for transmissions · CPC title