Patent ID: 8949000
Filing Date: 2015-02-03
Classification: F02D

Abstract:
1. A control device for an internal combustion engine, which performs rich control to control an amount of fuel supplied to a combustion chamber of the internal combustion engine so that an air-fuel ratio of an air-fuel mixture burned in the combustion chamber is richer than a stoichiometric air-fuel ratio, when a fuel cutoff operation in which supply of the fuel to the combustion chamber is cut off is terminated and the supply of the fuel to the combustion chamber is restarted, wherein the fuel cutoff operation is performed when both (a-1) an accelerator pedal operation amount is equal to zero or a throttle valve opening is equal to zero and (a-2) an engine rotational speed is equal to or higher than a predetermined threshold value, wherein when the control device is applied to the internal combustion engine which includes a plurality of the combustion chambers and in which a fuel supply cycle in which the fuel is sequentially supplied to the plurality of combustion chambers is repeated, the control device sets a first moment and a second moment such that the fuel supply cycle which includes the first moment is different from the fuel supply cycle which includes the second moment, the first moment being a moment at which the rich control is started in a first combustion chamber of the plurality of combustion chambers, and the second moment being a moment at which the rich control is started in a second combustion chamber of the plurality of combustion chambers, which is different from the first combustion chamber wherein the internal combustion engine includes a first catalyst into which gas discharged from the first combustion chamber is introduced and a second catalyst into which gas discharged from the second combustion chamber is introduced, the control device sets the first moment and the second moment based on a deterioration level of the first catalyst and a deterioration level of the second catalyst; wherein in a case when the deterioration level of the first catalyst is higher than the deterioration level of the second catalyst, the control device sets the first moment and the second moment such that the fuel supply cycle which includes the first moment is performed after performing the fuel supply cycle which includes the second moment when a total amount of the gas introduced into at least the first catalyst of the first and second catalysts during the fuel cutoff operation is greater than a threshold value amount, and the control device sets the first moment and the second moment such that the fuel supply cycle which includes the first moment is performed before performing the fuel supply cycle which includes the second moment when the total amount of the gas introduced into at least the first catalyst during the fuel cutoff operation is equal to or smaller than the threshold value amount.