Exhaust manifold pressure based misfire detection for internal combustion engines

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9316565-B2
Application number	US-201313741112-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 14, 2013
Priority date	Jan 14, 2013
Publication date	Apr 19, 2016
Grant date	Apr 19, 2016

Abstract

An engine cylinder misfire detection system is provided that detects changes in exhaust manifold pressure (EMP) fluctuations, compares the EMP fluctuations with diagnostic thresholds determined with other engine characteristic information obtained from engine sensor data, and determines whether a cylinder misfire has occurred. A method of monitoring and detecting EMP fluctuations in combination with one or more sensed engine characteristics is disclosed to determine an engine cylinder misfire in a cycle of an internal combustion engine having at least one cylinder. The actuation approaches of the present invention include one or more processes for a cylinder of an engine associated with a determination of various load variables including fresh air flow, engine type, engine data inputs, and analytical determinants.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for detecting an engine cylinder misfire in an internal combustion engine having at least one cylinder, comprising:
comparing a first load variable (FLV) with a first estimated load variable (FELV) for a first cylinder of the engine;
determining a first process to utilize, wherein the first process is one of an estimated exhaust manifold pressure process (EEMPP) or a centroid projection process (CPP), and wherein the CPP is based, at least in part, on an estimated exhaust manifold pressure;
calculating an operating value (OV) in relation to one or more data inputs of engine characteristics and a comparative value (CV) associated with a threshold value in response to the determination of the first process to utilize, wherein the OV and the CV are calculated using either the EEMPP or the CPP based on the comparison of the FLV to the FELV;
comparing the OV and the CV, and
detecting a misfire condition for the first cylinder based on the comparison of the OV to the CV.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising detecting a misfire condition where the OV is greater than the CV.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein if the FLV is greater than the FELV, the utilized first process is the EEMPP, whereby the FLV is one or more of an engine characteristic, engine load, fuel quantity, mass charge flow (MCF), fresh air flow (FAF), flow rate, and the FELV is one or more of an estimated engine characteristic, estimated engine load, estimated fuel quantity, estimated mass charge flow (EMCF), estimated fresh air flow (EFAF), estimated flow rate, associated with the FLV.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein if the FLV is less than the FLEV, the utilized first process is the CPP.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the one or more data inputs include at least one of: exhaust manifold pressure (EMP), engine speed, fuel quantity, mass air flow (MAF), Exhaust Gas Recirculation (EGR) pressure, ambient pressure, turbine speed and turbine position.

6. The method of claim 5 , further comprising the step of repeating the method for one or more additional cylinders of the engine, wherein the engine is one of an internal combustion engine, a diesel engine, a hybrid engine system, and a battery-driven engine.

7. The method of claim 5 , wherein the EEMPP further comprises: a) estimating an EMP for the first cylinder (ESTEMP), b) determining a residue threshold in relation to one or more data inputs, and c) calculating a residue as a difference between a measured EMP and the ESTEMP.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein the one or more data inputs is turbine actuator or turbocharger position.

9. The method of claim 7 , wherein the residue threshold is the CV and the residue is the OV.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein the misfire condition is determined as being present if the residue is greater than the residue threshold.

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein a misfire condition is determined as a detected misfire when the residue is greater than the residue threshold.

12. The method of claim 9 , wherein the misfire condition is determined as being not present if the residue is not greater than the residue threshold.

13. The method of claim 9 , wherein a misfire condition is determined as detected when the OV is greater than the CV.

14. The method of claim 7 , wherein the EEMPP further includes estimating the EMP (ESTEMP) using one of an auto-regressive based, physics-based, or exponential moving average.

15. The method of claim 7 , wherein the CPP further comprises: a) computing centroid coordinates associated with the measured EMP, and b) projecting one or more associated centroid coordinates onto a line of separation.

16. The method of claim 15 , wherein projecting the one or more associated centroid coordinates onto a line of separation further includes analyzing using one or more pattern classification techniques comprising at least one of linear discriminate analysis techniques or support vector machines.

17. The method of claim 15 , wherein the OV is a value of the one or more associated centroid coordinates projected and the CV is less than one.

18. The method of claim 17 , wherein the CV is equal to zero.

19. The method of claim 17 , wherein if the OV is greater than the CV, a misfire condition of no misfire is determined.

20. The method of claim 17 , wherein if the value of the one or more associated centroid coordinates projected is greater than or equal to zero, then a misfire condition is determined as not being present.

21. The method of claim 17 , wherein if the residue is greater than the residue threshold, then a misfire condition is determined as being present.

22. The method of claim 17 , further comprising the step of repeating the method for a second cylinder of the engine.

23. The method of claim 7 , wherein the measured EMP corresponds to an EMP signal.

24. The method of claim 1 , wherein the CPP comprises determining one or more centroid coordinates and magnitude of energy corresponding to an EMP signal.

25. A system for identifying a misfire condition of an engine cylinder in an internal combustion engine, comprising:
at least one pressure sensor operatively coupled to the engine to detect an exhaust manifold pressure (EMP);
at least one data sensor operatively coupled to the engine to detect one or more characteristics of the engine; and
a control system for the engine having an exhaust gas output, wherein the control system includes a plurality of actuation controllers being in communication with the at least one pressure sensor and the at least one data sensor;
a data processor of the control system, the data processor structured to:
receive data sensed by the at least one pressure sensor and the at least one data sensor;
determine a first process to utilize, wherein the first process is one of an estimated exhaust manifold pressure process (EEMPP) or a centroid projection process (CPP), and wherein the CPP is based, at least in part, on an estimated exhaust manifold pressure;
utilize the first process to calculate an operating value (OV) based on the received data and a comparative value (CV) associated with a threshold value, wherein the first process is one of an estimated exhaust manifold pressure process (EEMPP) or a centroid projection process (CPP);
compare the OV and the CV; and
detect a misfire condition for the cylinder based on the comparison of the OV to the CV.

26. The system of claim 25 , wherein the engine further comprises an exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) arrangement.

27. The system of claim 25 , wherein the received data sensed is one or more of an engine characteristic, engine load, fuel quantity, mass charge flow (MCF), fresh air flow (FAF), flow rate, and the estimated associated data is one or more of an estimated engine characteristic, estimated engine load, estimated fuel quantity, estimated mass charge flow (EMCF), estimated fresh air flow (EFAF), estimated flow rate, associated with the received data sensed.

28. The system of claim 27 , wherein if the received data sensed is less than an estimated associated data, the utilized first process is the EEMPP, and wherein if the received data sensed is not less than the estimated associated data, the utilized first process is the CPP.

29. The system of claim 28 , wherein the EEMPP further comprises: a) estimating an EMP for the first

Assignees

• Cummins Inc

Inventors

• Kappaganthu Karthik
• Stroh David

Classifications

• G01M15/11 Primary

  by detecting misfire · CPC title

• G06F17/10

  Complex mathematical operations {(function generation by table look-up G06F1/03; evaluation of elementary functions by calculation G06F7/544)} · CPC title

• F02D2200/1015

  Engines misfires · CPC title

• F02D41/1448

  the characteristics being an exhaust gas pressure · CPC title