Search Results

This paper identifies a select method for performing cylinder imbalance measurement, correction and diagnosis. The impetus is to address new U.S. Federal regulations that require the detection of excessive cylinder air-fuel ratio (AFR) imbalance, and doing so requires the foundational ability to measure and preferably remove cylinder imbalance via active closed-loop control. This function is called Individual Cylinder Fuel Control (ICFC). ICFC starts by extracting cylinder-imbalance information from the front oxygen sensor, and that information comes in the form a of continuous data stream. That stream is then parsed to create virtual sensors- one for each cylinder. Each virtual sensor acts as an imbalance or error signal which ICFC uses to correct and learn via feedback and feed-forward control for each cylinder. The cylinder imbalance diagnostic is enabled by the presence of ICFC.

In this paper we discuss in detail an algorithm that addresses cylinder-to-cylinder imbalance issues. Maintaining even equivalence-ratio (ϕ) control across all the cylinders of an engine is confounded by imbalances which include fuel-injector flow variations, fresh-air intake maldistribution and uneven distribution of Exhaust Gas Re-circulation (EGR). Moreover, in markets that are growing increasingly cost conscious, with ever tightening emissions regulations, correcting for such mismatches must not only be done, but done at little or no additional cost. To address this challenge, we developed an Individual Cylinder Fuel Control (ICFC) algorithm that estimates each cylinder's individual ϕ and then compensates to correct for any imbalance using only existing production hardware. Prior work in this area exists1,2, yet all disclosed production-intent work was performed using wide-range oxygen sensors, representing cost increases.

In recent years, sophisticated audio systems have been installed on touring motorcycles. One feature of these systems is the provision for headphones on or inside the safety helmets. With such an installation, the rider must still be able to perceive safety-related sounds, such as the siren of an emergency vehicle. This paper considers the spectral characteristics of sirens and ambient motorcycle noise, and the sound attenuation of helmets in general. This leads to the specification of characteristics for an audio filter which attenuates the program amplitude in the spectral region of a siren. The result permits the rider to hear a siren with adequate warning, yet maintains the desired high level of sound quality.