Patent ID: 7577511
Filing Date: 2009-08-18
Classification: F02D,F02P,Y02T

Abstract:
1. An internal combustion engine comprising: a plurality of working chambers each arranged to operate in a succession of working cycles; a fuel delivery system arranged to facilitate the delivery of fuel into the working chambers; and a fuel delivery control unit that enables the engine to operate in a variable displacement mode in which the fuel delivery system is controlled to selectively deliver fuel to the working chambers during a first selected group of fired working cycles and to skip delivery of fuel to the working chambers during a second selected group of skipped working cycles, wherein the fuel delivery control unit includes a predictive adaptive controller and is arranged to dynamically determine the fired and skipped working cycles on a working cycle by working cycle basis during operation of the engine based at least in part upon a feedback signal indicative of at least one of requested and actual working cycle firings in order to deliver a desired engine output, and wherein the amount of fuel selectively delivered to the working chambers during each of the first selected group of fired working cycles is substantially optimized for the amount of air delivered to the working chambers during the first set of the active working cycles.