Power generation unit, and motor generator control method

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9709015-B2
Application number	US-201314777650-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 11, 2013
Priority date	Mar 21, 2013
Publication date	Jul 18, 2017
Grant date	Jul 18, 2017

Abstract

A power generation unit includes a motor generator having a rotor with magnet, and a stator with coils driven in a plurality of phases, the coils of the respective phases not being connected to each other; and a driving control part that performs control so that a coil of each phase of the stator is brought into any one of a first state in which torque is generated by the rotor, a second state in which both ends of the coil are electrically released, and a third state in which both ends of the coil are short-circuited.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A power generation unit that is mounted on a vehicle together with an internal combustion engine that outputs a driving force for traveling and that has a rotor connected with a rotation output shaft of the internal combustion engine, the power generation unit comprising:
a motor generator having the rotor with a magnet, and a stator with coils driven in three or more phases, the coils of each phase not being connected to each other; and
a driving control part that performs control so that a coil of each phase of the stator is brought into any one of a first state in which torque is generated by the rotor, a second state in which both ends of the coil are disconnected from a vehicle-mounted battery, and a third state in which both ends of the coil are short-circuited,
wherein the driving control part performs powering control of the motor generator by making a second phase among the three or more phases into the first state when a number of rotations of the rotor is lower than a predetermined number of rotations, makes other coils into the second state or the third state, and reduces a torque applied to the rotation output shaft by the rotor as a number of rotations of the rotation output shaft of the internal combustion engine increases.

2. The power generation unit according to claim 1 ,
wherein the driving control part brings some coils among the three or more phases into the second state or the third state when the motor generator is made to generate electric power using the output of the internal combustion engine.

3. The power generation unit according to claim 2 ,
wherein the driving control part brings some coils among the three or more phases into the second state when the number of rotations of the rotor is lower than the predetermined number of rotations, and brings some coils among the three or more phases into the third state when the number of rotations of the rotor is equal to or greater than the predetermined number of rotations.

4. The power generation unit according to claim 2 ,
wherein the driving control part brings all the coils of the three or more phases into the first state when the internal combustion engine is started by applying torque to the rotation output shaft.

5. The power generation unit according to claim 1 ,
wherein the coils of the three or more phases have different numbers of turns, and generate electric power at mutually different power generation voltages.

6. The power generation unit according to claim 1 ,
wherein the coils for the three or more phases have switching elements, and the driving control part makes switching timings for the switching elements of each phase different from each other, thereby making the coils of the three or more phases generate electric power at mutually different power generation voltages.

7. The power generation unit according to claim 5 ,
wherein electric power generated by some coils among the three or more phases is used for charging the vehicle-mounted battery, and electric power generated by some other coils of the three or more phases is used for driving a lighting device.

8. The power generation unit according to claim 1 ,
wherein when a charge state of the vehicle-mounted battery is equal to or greater than a predetermined level, the driving control part makes some coils among the three or more phases generate electric power using rotary power of the internal combustion engine, and charges the vehicle-mounted battery with the generated electric power, and brings some other coils among the three or more phases into the second state or the third state, and
wherein when the charge state of the vehicle-mounted battery is lower than the predetermined level, the driving control part makes the coils of phases, which has more phases than the phases of the some coils when the charge state of the vehicle-mounted battery is equal to or greater than the predetermined level, generate electric power using rotary power of the internal combustion engine.

9. The power generation unit according to claim 1 ,
wherein when an acceleration instruction is given to the vehicle and when a charge state of the vehicle-mounted battery is equal to or greater than a predetermined level, the driving control part brings all the coils of the three or more phases into the second state or the third state, and
wherein when the acceleration instruction is given to the vehicle and when the charge state of the vehicle-mounted battery is lower than the predetermined level, the driving control part makes some coils among the three or more phases generate electric power using rotary power of the internal combustion engine, charges the vehicle-mounted battery with the generated electric power, and brings some other coils among the three or more phases into the second state or the third state.

10. The power generation unit according to claim 1 ,
wherein the driving control part performs powering control of the motor generator while making at least some coils among the three or more phases in the first state until a number of rotations of the internal combustion engine becomes equal to or greater than a predetermined number of rotations after an acceleration instruction is given to the vehicle in a stopped state or in a state in which the vehicle travels at low speed.

11. The power generation unit according to claim 1 ,
wherein the stator has coils driven in three phases, and
wherein when electric power is generated using rotary power of a driving source, the driving control part brings a coil of one phase among the coils driven in the three phases into the first state and brings coils of the two remaining phases into the second state or the third state.

12. A method for controlling a motor generator that is mounted on a vehicle together with an internal combustion engine that outputs a driving force for traveling and that has a rotor connected with a rotation output shaft of the internal combustion engine, the motor generator having the rotor with a magnet, and a stator with coils driven in three or more phases, the coils of each phase not being connected to each other,
wherein when a number of rotations of the rotor is in a low rotation range below a predetermined number of rotations, some coils among the three or more phases are brought into a state in which both ends are disconnected from a vehicle-mounted battery,
wherein when the number of rotations of the rotor is in a high rotation range above the predetermined number of rotations, some coils among the three or more phases are brought into a state in which both ends of a coil are short-circuited, and
wherein when the number of rotations of the rotor is lower than the predetermined number of rotations, making a second phase among the three or more phases into a state in which torque is generated by the rotor, and making the other coils into the state in which both ends are electrically disconnected from the vehicle-mounted battery or the state in which both ends of the coil are short-circuited, and reducing a torque applied to the rotation output shaft by the rotor as a number of rotations of the rotation output shaft of the internal combustion engine increases.

Assignees

• Honda Motor Co Ltd

Inventors

• Ouchi Katsuhiro
• Yanagisawa Takeshi
• Sonoda Yutaka
• Shiozawa Tatsuya
• Katayama Atsushi
• Kurosaka Hitoshi

Classifications

• F02N11/0859

  specially adapted to the type of the starter motor or integrated into it · CPC title

• H02J7/1484

  by commutation of the output windings of the generator · CPC title

• F02N11/04

  the motors being associated with current generators · CPC title

• B60K2006/264

  with outer rotor and inner stator · CPC title

• F02B61/02

  for driving cycles · CPC title