APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR CONTROLLING DAMPER CLUTCH OF AUTOMATIC TRANSMISSION VEHICLE

A method of controlling a damper clutch of a turbocharger mounted automatic transmission vehicle secures stable boost pressure to provide accelerating feeling is disclosed. The method may include detecting driving information from a turbocharger mounted vehicle to determine whether lock up conditions of a damper clutch are satisfied, determining an engine load by a gear shift stage and an engine speed when the lock up conditions of the damper clutch are satisfied, detecting supplied boost pressure to determine whether conditions of the engine load are satisfied, and canceling the lock up of the damper clutch for accelerating feeling when the boost pressure does not satisfy the conditions of the engine load.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In order to clearly describe the present invention, parts that are not related to description are omitted and the same or similar constituent elements are denoted by the same reference numerals throughout the entire specification.

In addition, since the constituent elements are arbitrarily illustrated in the drawings for convenience sake, the present invention is not necessarily limited to the drawings.

FIG. 1is a view schematically illustrating an apparatus for controlling a damper clutch of an automatic transmission according to various embodiments of the present invention.

Referring toFIG. 1, the damper clutch controlling apparatus according to the present invention includes a driving information detecting unit101, a boost pressure detecting unit102, a controller103, and an actuator104.

The driving information detecting unit101detects overall driving information including a position of an accelerator pedal operated by a driver, a turbine speed, oil temperature of a transmission, a gear shift stage, a gradient, line pressure, a slip amount, coolant temperature, and an engine speed to provide the detected driving information to the controller103.

The boost pressure detecting unit102detects boost pressure supplied to a combustion chamber in accordance with an operation of a turbocharger to provide information on the boost pressure to the controller103.

The controller103analyzes the information provided by the driving information detecting unit101to determine conditions of an engine load in accordance with the gear shift stage and the engine speed when lock up conditions of a damper clutch predetermined by a map are satisfied and to control the lock up of the damper clutch when the boost pressure satisfies the conditions of the engine load.

However, the control portion103cancels the lock up of the damper clutch so that stable boost pressure may be secured when the driving information satisfies the lock up conditions of the damper clutch and the boost pressure does not satisfy the conditions of the engine load.

Therefore, stable responsiveness to accelerating demand of a driver may be provided.

A map for the controller103to lock up the damper clutch and to cancel the lock up of the damper clutch is predetermined, for example, as follows.

The position of the accelerator pedal and the turbine speed must satisfy a predetermined condition, oil temperature of the automatic transmission and a current gear shift stage must satisfy a predetermined condition, a gradient of a driving road must satisfy a predetermined condition, amounts of change and slip of line pressure must satisfy a predetermined condition, an engine is not to be in a warm up mode and a slip lock up prohibiting mode, a throttle valve open rate by operation of the accelerator pedal must be no more than a predetermined change rate, and lock up entry delay time must satisfy a predetermined condition.

Any one of the above-described lock up conditions of the damper clutch is not satisfied, the lock up state is canceled.

The actuator104locks up the damper clutch and cancels the lock up of the damper clutch in accordance with a control signal applied by the controller103.

The actuator104may be formed of a solenoid valve.

Operations of the damper clutch controlling apparatus according to the present invention having the above-described functions are performed as follows.

When a turbocharger mounted vehicle to which an automatic transmission according to the present invention is applied is driven, the controller103detects overall driving information including a position of an accelerator pedal operated by a driver, a turbine speed, oil temperature of a transmission, a gear shift stage, a gradient, line pressure, a slip amount, coolant temperature, and an engine speed by the driving information detecting unit101S101.

The controller103analyzes the driving information detected in S101to determine whether lock up conditions of the damper clutch predetermined by a map are satisfied S102.

In the lock up conditions of the damper clutch, the position of the accelerator pedal and the turbine speed must satisfy a predetermined condition, oil temperature of the automatic transmission and a current gear shift stage must satisfy a predetermined condition, a gradient of a driving road must satisfy a predetermined condition, amounts of change and slip of line pressure must satisfy a predetermined condition, an engine is not to be in a warm up mode and a slip lock up prohibiting mode, a throttle valve open rate by operation of the accelerator pedal must be no more than a predetermined change rate, and lock up entry delay time must satisfy a predetermined condition.

When it is determined in S102that the driving information satisfies the lock up conditions of the damper clutch, the controller103determines the conditions of the engine load in accordance with the gear shift stage and the engine speed S103to detect the boost pressure supplied to the combustion chamber in accordance with the operation of the turbocharger by the boost pressure detecting unit102S104.

The controller103determines whether the boost pressure detected in S104satisfies the conditions of the engine load S105.

When it is determined in S105that the boost pressure satisfies the conditions of the engine load, the controller103operates the damper clutch by the actuator104to lock up the damper clutch S107.

However, when it is determined in S105that the boost pressure does not satisfy the conditions of the engine load, the controller103cancels the lock up of the damper clutch by the actuator104so that stable boost pressure may be secured S106.

The boost pressure in accordance with the engine load may be predetermined as illustrated in Table 1.

Therefore, stable responsiveness to accelerating demand of a driver may be provided.

As described above, according to the present invention, when the turbocharger mounted automatic transmission vehicle is in a condition disadvantageous to the accelerating feeling, the lock up of the damper clutch is avoided through TMS logic to secure stable boost pressure and accelerating responsiveness.

In the damper clutch controlling apparatus according to the present invention, the lock up of the damper clutch is canceled in a region where the boost pressure of the turbocharger is insufficient so that the torque multiplication operation of the torque converter is used. Therefore, a driving torque is increased so that responsiveness to the accelerating will of the driver may be improved.

In the turbocharger mounted automatic transmission vehicle according to the present invention, the lock up of the damper clutch is canceled in a region where the driving torque is insufficient and an engine torque must be rapidly increased so that stable accelerating feeling may be provided.