Patent ID: 8103426

Claim:
A method for controlling two consecutive fuel injection pulses in an electrically-actuated fuel injector system for an internal combustion engine, which nearby the top dead compression centre (TDCC), an injector is driven so as to perform a fuel injection sequence (pulse 1 -pulse N) according to a predetermined pattern (A-Z) including a plurality of successive and separate fuel injection pulses (pulse 1 -pulse N) having respective predetermined durations, and a start of a first injection pulse (pulse 1 ) of the fuel injection sequence is defined as an angular distance (crank angle) with respect to the TDCC, the method comprising the steps of: following the first one (pulse 1 ) for each injection pulse (pulse 2 -pulse N) of the fuel injection sequence; comparing an instantaneous value of a function of a predetermined parameter with a threshold value; determining a start in a first manner as a time distance from an end of an immediately preceding injection pulse (pulse 1 , . . . , pulse N−1) if said instantaneous value is less than said threshold value; and determining a start in a second manner as the angular distance from a relevant TDCC if said instantaneous value is not less than said threshold value.