Drive arrangement for an engine ancillary such as a supercharger

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10655551-B2
Application number	US-201414767681-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 13, 2014
Priority date	Feb 13, 2013
Publication date	May 19, 2020
Grant date	May 19, 2020

Abstract

A supercharging arrangement for an internal combustion engine. The supercharging arrangement comprises a supercharger having a rotational drive input, and a transmission having a rotational drive input to receive drive from an internal combustion engine, and a rotational drive output connected to the input of the supercharger. The transmission includes a variator operatively connected between the input and the output of the transmission, which variator has an output that is driven at an operating ratio from an input. A control system operates to cause an engine to deliver an amount of torque that is indicated by the state of an input to the control system. The control system is further operative to set the operating ratio of the variator.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A supercharging arrangement for an internal combustion engine comprising:
a supercharger having a rotational drive input;
a transmission having a rotational drive input to receive drive from the internal combustion engine, and a rotational drive output connected to the input of the supercharger, wherein the transmission includes a variator operatively connected between the rotational drive input and the rotational drive output of the transmission, which the variator has an output that is driven at an operating ratio from an input, wherein the variator is of a rolling race type and incorporates at least one rolling element clamped between two races;
a control means having a slider for adjusting one or both of the operating ratio and a rate of change of the operating ratio of the variator; and
a control system that operates to cause the engine to adopt a target operating point that is indicated by a state of an input to the control system, the control system being operative to set the operating ratio of the variator via the control means, wherein to set the operating ratio of the variator, the control system is operative to determine a target variator ratio based on the input and modify the target variator ratio to determine a modified target variator ratio.

2. The supercharging arrangement according to claim 1 in which the input to the control system may be one or more of an input determined by a person, an automated vehicle speed controller, an autopilot, a vehicle stability control system, an engine speed governor, a main drive transmission, an energy storage system, an energy recovery system, an auxiliary driven device and a power take-off device.

3. The supercharging arrangement according to claim 1 in which the control system is operative to regulate an inertial torque of the supercharging arrangement that is referred to the drive input such that it is a fixed or variable proportion of an engine output torque.

4. The supercharging arrangement according to claim 1 in which the control system is operative to regulate an inertial torque of the supercharging arrangement such that a torque such sum of said inertial torque and a steady state supercharging arrangement torque, when said torque sum is referred to the drive input, is a fixed or variable proportion of an engine output torque.

5. The supercharging arrangement according to claim 1 in which the control system operates to regulate changes in an inertial torque of the supercharging arrangement that is referred to a crankshaft of the internal combustion engine such that a rate of change of said torque is such that jerk does not exceed a pre-determined threshold.

6. The supercharging arrangement according to claim 1 in which the control system operates to adjust the operating ratio of the variator such that one or more operational limits of one or both of the supercharger and variator are not violated, wherein the operational limit of the supercharger is one or more of a maximum speed, a surge limit, a choke limit, a pressure ratio limit, a boost pressure limit and a drive torque limit.

7. The supercharging arrangement according to claim 6 in which the operational variator limit is one or more of a clamp load, input torque, output torque, input speed, output speed, variator ratio, reaction torque, input power, output power and contact fraction limits.

8. The supercharging arrangement according to claim 6 , in which the control system utilizes one or both of an engine speed and an engine acceleration signal in order to prevent violation of one or both of the variator and supercharger limits, in which the engine acceleration signal is determined from one or both of a filtered derivative of an engine speed measurement and an estimated engine acceleration based on an engine torque, supercharger arrangement torque referred to a crank, transmission ratio, powertrain inertia, vehicle inertia and gradient.

9. The supercharging arrangement according to claim 1 in which the variator comprises:
an input surface and an output surface, the input and output surfaces being coaxially mounted for rotation about a variator axis, and a toroidal cavity being defined between the input and output surfaces;
the at least one of rolling elements disposed between and being in driving engagement with the input and the output surfaces at respective contact regions, each of the rolling elements being mounted on a carriage assembly for rotation about a rolling axis, each of the rolling elements being free to pivot about a tilt axis, the tilt axis passing through each of the rolling elements perpendicular to the rolling axis, and intersecting the rolling axis at a roller center, whereby a change in the tilt angle causes a change in the variator ratio being the ratio of rotational speeds of the input and output surfaces.

10. The supercharging arrangement according to claim 9 in which each of the carriage assembly mounted to one of the roller elements can cause pivotal movement, which the pivotal movement is about a pitch axis that results in a change of a pitch angle of the rolling element associated with each of the carriage assembly, the pitch axis passing through the roller center and through the contact regions; and the variator further comprising a control member operative to cause each carriage assembly to undertake the pivotal movement thereby changing the pitch angle, so urging the plurality of rolling elements to pivot about their tilt axes and thereby provide a change in the operating ratio of the variator.

11. The supercharging arrangement according to claim 1 in which the at least one of multiple rolling elements experience a positional input that displaces them such that the races steer said rolling elements as they rotate such that they adopt a new orientation whereby the relative positions of the rolling element contacts with the races are commensurate with the positional input, in which the orientations of the rolling elements determine the variator ratio.

12. The supercharging arrangement according to claim 1 in which the control means is operative to cause an actuator to adjust one or both of the operating ratio of the variator and the rate of change of the operating ratio of the variator, in which the actuator is one of a stepper motor, a DC motor, a torque motor or a hydraulic cylinder.

13. A supercharging arrangement for an internal combustion engine comprising:
a supercharger having a rotational drive input;
a transmission having a rotational drive input to receive drive from the internal combustion engine, and a rotational drive output connected to the input of the supercharger, wherein the transmission includes a variator operatively connected between the rotational drive input and the rotational drive output of the transmission, which the variator has an output that is driven at an operating ratio from an input, wherein the variator is of a rolling race type and incorporates at least one rolling element clamped between two races;
a control means having a slider for adjusting one or both of the operating ratio and a rate of change of the operating ratio of the variator; and
a control system that operates to cause the engine to adopt a target operating point that is indicated by a state of an input to the control system, the control system being operative to set one or both of the operating ratio of the variator and the rate of change of the operating ratio of the variator via the control means, wherein the control system is operative to cause the target operating point to be satisfied by adjustment of a control variable that is based on a calculation of air pressure at an outlet of th

Assignees

• Allison Transm Inc

Inventors

• Shawe James
• Fuller John

Classifications

• F02D41/0007 Primary

  for control of turbo-charged or super-charged engines (control of the pumps per se F02B37/12) · CPC title

• F02B39/04

  Mechanical drives; Variable-gear-ratio drives (non-mechanical pump drives having variable gear ratio F02B39/08) · CPC title

• F16H15/38 Primary

  with two members B having hollow toroid surfaces opposite to each other, the member or members A being adjustably mounted between the surfaces · CPC title

• F16H61/6648

  controlling of shifting being influenced by a signal derived from the engine and the main coupling · CPC title

• F02B39/16

  Other safety measures for, or other control of, pumps · CPC title