Ventilation – Vehicle – Having automatic control means
Utility Patent
1999-07-07
2001-01-02
Wayner, William (Department: 3744)
Ventilation
Vehicle
Having automatic control means
C165S249000, C236S07800D
Utility Patent
active
06168515
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to technique for controlling the amount of outside air admitted to a vehicle compartment in accordance with an unclean condition of the outside air.
A conventional air conditioner intake door control system is shown in JSAE technical paper “GAKUJUTU KOENKAI MAEZURISHU 975” pages 149~152, published October 1997 by Society of Automotive Engineers of Japan, Inc. This system senses an outside exhaust gas concentration with a sensor and control the position of an intake door in accordance with the sensor output.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is an object of the present invention to provide control apparatus and method for effectively preventing inflow of outside exhaust gases into a vehicle compartment.
An outside air intake quantity control apparatus according to one aspect of the present invention comprises:
exhaust gas concentration calculating means for calculating an ambient exhaust gas concentration from a sensor output signal of an ambient exhaust gas sensor;
differentiating means for calculating a derivative of the exhaust gas concentration representing a time rate of change of the exhaust gas concentration;
first checking means for checking a previous value of the derivative calculated at a previous time, to determine whether a previous exhaust gas concentration change is in stable state or in a changing state in a clean direction toward a cleaner state;
second checking means for checking whether a current value of the derivative calculated at a current time is equal to or greater than a predetermine derivative threshold; and
controlling means for commanding reduction of the quantity of the outside air introduced into the vehicle to a minimum value when the previous exhaust gas concentration change is in one of the stable state and the changing state in the clean direction and the current value of the derivative is equal to or greater than the predetermine derivative threshold.
A vehicle air conditioning system according to one aspect of the present invention comprises output, input and control sections. The output section comprises an actuator for varying an outside air inlet opening degree in response to a control signal. The input section comprises an outside air condition sensor for sensing an unclean condition of the outside air. The control section comprises a controller for controlling the outside air inlet opening degree in accordance with an output signal of the outside air condition sensor, for determining an outside air condition quantity indicative of a degree of uncleanness in accordance with the output signal of the outside air condition sensor, and for reducing the outside air inlet opening degree to a minimum setting when a previous change of the outside air condition quantity is not in an unclean direction toward a less clean state, and at the same time a current change of the outside air condition quantity has a direction in the unclean direction and a magnitude greater than or equal to a predetermined threshold.
An air intake door control process according to one aspect of the present invention comprises; ascertaining a sensed ambient exhaust gas concentration; calculating an outside air condition quantity from the sensed ambient exhaust gas concentration; determining a time series of values of a time rate of change of a degree of uncleanness of the outside air; checking a previous value of the time rate to determine whether a previous exhaust gas concentration change is in one of a stable state and a changing state in a clean direction toward a cleaner state; further checking whether a current value of the time rate is equal to or greater than a predetermine rate threshold; and commanding the intake door to close the outside air inlet when the previous exhaust gas concentration change is in one of the stable state and the changing state in the clean direction and the current value of the derivative is equal to or greater than the predetermine rate threshold.
REFERENCES:
patent: 5320577 (1994-06-01), Tooru et al.
patent: 5725425 (1998-03-01), Rump et al.
patent: 5980378 (1999-11-01), Wieszt
patent: 5-294132 (1993-11-01), None
patent: 5-294133 (1993-11-01), None
Daimon Yuji
Nagayama Hiroki
Calsonic Corporation
Foley & Lardner
Wayner William
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