Electrical monitoring of gaseous fuel admission valves

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10208683-B2
Application number	US-201514639978-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 5, 2015
Priority date	Mar 7, 2014
Publication date	Feb 19, 2019
Grant date	Feb 19, 2019

Abstract

A method of evaluating operability of a gaseous fuel admission valve of an internal combustion engine is disclosed. The method includes operating the internal combustion engine on gaseous fuel by repeatedly actuating the gaseous fuel admission valve. The method further includes measuring a sequence of temporal developments of an electrical operation parameter respectively associated with an actuation of the gaseous fuel admission valve. The sequence includes a first temporal development to be evaluated and a plurality of temporal developments preceding the first temporal development. The method also includes evaluating operability of the gaseous fuel admission valve based on the first temporal development of the measured sequence and at least one of the plurality of preceding temporal developments of the measured sequence.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method for evaluating operability of a gaseous fuel admission valve of an internal combustion engine, the method comprising:
operating the internal combustion engine on gaseous fuel by repeatedly
actuating the gaseous fuel admission valve and burning the gaseous fuel in at least one cylinder of the internal combustion engine;
measuring, using a sensor associated with the gaseous fuel admission valve, a plurality of temporal developments of an electrical operation parameter respectively associated with an actuation of the gaseous fuel admission valve, the plurality of temporal developments including a first temporal development to be evaluated, and a plurality of preceding temporal developments preceding the first temporal development; and
determining, using a control unit, an operating condition of the gaseous fuel admission valve based on a comparison of the first temporal development and at least one preceding temporal development of the plurality of preceding temporal developments; and

adjusting a supply of the gaseous fuel to the at least one cylinder of the internal combustion engine based on the determined operating condition,
each temporal development of the plurality of temporal developments including at least one of
an opening section, in which the gaseous fuel admission valve is moving open by energizing the gaseous fuel admission valve, and
a closing section, in which the gaseous fuel admission valve is moving closed by deenergizing the gaseous fuel admission valve.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the method step of determining the operating condition further comprises determining a temporal deviation of the first temporal development with respect to the at least one preceding temporal development of the plurality of preceding temporal developments.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein each temporal development of the plurality of temporal developments comprises:
the opening section;
a maintaining open section, in which the gaseous fuel admission valve is maintained open by maintaining the gaseous fuel admission valve energized; and
the closing section.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the method step of determining the operating condition further comprises comparing at least one of the opening section, the maintaining open section, and the closing section of the first temporal development and a respective section of the at least one preceding temporal development of the plurality of preceding temporal developments.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the method step of determining the operating condition further comprises at least one of:
comparing a first mean value of the first temporal development to a second mean value of a subgroup of preceding temporal developments of the plurality of preceding temporal developments; and
comparing the first mean value of the first temporal development to a threshold value associated with the second mean value of the subgroup of preceding temporal developments of the plurality of preceding temporal developments.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the method step of determining the operating condition further includes deriving a tendency parameter from a subgroup of preceding temporal developments of the plurality of preceding temporal developments, and comparing the tendency parameter to the first temporal development.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising at least one of:
determining the operating condition of the gaseous fuel admission valve as being inoperable;
determining the operating condition of the gaseous fuel admission valve as having a limited operability; and
determining a contamination degree of the gaseous fuel admission valve.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein adjusting the supply of the gaseous fuel includes stopping a gaseous fuel mode of the at least one cylinder associated with the gaseous fuel admission valve.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein stopping the gaseous fuel mode comprises at least one of:
stopping the supply of the gaseous fuel from a gaseous fuel source to the at least one cylinder of the internal combustion engine;
supplying a purge gas upstream of the gaseous fuel admission valve; and
preventing ignition in the at least one cylinder associated with the gaseous fuel admission valve.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of temporal developments include temporal developments of at least one of
consecutive combustion cycles,
combustion cycles at predetermined intervals, and
combustion cycles with substantially similar engine parameters.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the method step of determining the operating condition is further based on engine parameters, the engine parameters including at least one of an engine load, an engine speed, an inlet manifold pressure, a charge air pressure, a gaseous fuel manifold pressure, a charge air temperature, a combustion pressure, and a combustion temperature.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein the electrical operation parameter includes one of a current value and a voltage value of an electrical power drawn by the gaseous fuel admission valve during actuation of the gaseous fuel admission valve.

13. An internal combustion engine, comprising:
a gaseous fuel system;
a plurality of cylinders to receive gaseous fuel from the gaseous fuel system;
a plurality of gaseous fuel admission valves, each gaseous fuel admission valve of the plurality of gaseous fuel admission valves being associated with a cylinder of the plurality of cylinders, each gaseous fuel admission valve fluidly connecting the gaseous fuel system with a respective cylinder of the plurality of cylinders;
at least one sensor configured to measure an electrical operation parameter of each gaseous fuel admission valve of the plurality of gaseous fuel admission valves; and
a control unit configured to receive the electrical operation parameter for each gaseous fuel admission valve from the at least one sensor, the electrical operation parameter being associated with an actuation of a respective gaseous fuel admission valve of the plurality of gaseous fuel valves, and the control unit is further configured to perform a method including:
operating the internal combustion engine on gaseous fuel by repeatedly actuating the gaseous fuel admission valve and combusting the gaseous fuel in at least one cylinder of the plurality of cylinders;
measuring, using the at least one sensor, a plurality of temporal developments of the electrical operation parameter respectively associated with an actuation of each gaseous fuel admission valve, the temporal developments including a first temporal development to be evaluated and a plurality of preceding temporal developments preceding the first temporal development;
determining an operating condition of the gaseous fuel admission valve based on a comparison of the first temporal development and at least one preceding temporal development of the plurality of preceding temporal developments; and
adjusting a supply of the gaseous fuel to the at least one cylinder based on the determined operating condition,

each temporal development of the plurality of temporal developments including at least one of
an opening section, in which the gaseous fuel admission valve is moving open by energizing the gaseous fuel admission valve, and
a closing section, in which the gaseous fuel admission valve is moving closed by deenergizing the gaseous fuel admission valve.

14. The internal combustion engine of claim 13 , wherein the internal combustion engine is configured as one of a dual fuel internal combustion engine and a gaseous fuel intern

Assignees

• Caterpillar Motoren Gmbh & Co

Inventors

• Sixel Eike Joachim
• Marscheider Hannes
• Wester Daniel
• Sivasubramanian Arvind
• Barnes Travis
• Gallmeyer Chris
• Frey Jedediah A
• Neaville Andrew J
• Calderwood Robert

Classifications

• F02D2041/2058

  using information of the actual current value · CPC title

• F02D19/025

  Failure diagnosis or prevention; Safety measures; Testing · CPC title

• F02D41/0025

  Controlling engines characterised by use of non-liquid fuels, pluralities of fuels, or non-fuel substances added to the combustible mixtures · CPC title

• F02D2041/224

  Diagnosis of the fuel system · CPC title

• F02D41/221

  relating to the failure of actuators or electrically driven elements · CPC title