Internal-combustion engines – With heating means
Reexamination Certificate
1999-01-15
2001-01-30
Kwon, John (Department: 3747)
Internal-combustion engines
With heating means
Reexamination Certificate
active
06178938
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a combustion heater for an internal combustion engine and, more particularly, to a combustion heater for an internal combustion engine, which is disposed in an intake passageway of the internal combustion engine and raises temperature of engine related elements.
2. Description of the Prior Art
An internal combustion engine requires speeding up both a start and a warm-up thereof at a cold time. For example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No.62-75069 discloses an art of warming the engine cooling water by utilizing the combustion heat emitted from a vaporization type combustion heater attached to an intake passageway of the internal combustion engine, and thereby enhancing a heater performance of a car room heater as well as speeding up the warm-up of the engine.
According to this prior art, the combustion heater is operated before starting up the internal combustion engine, and the operation of the combustion heater continues for a short period of time after the engine start, thereby trying to enhance a starting characteristic of the internal combustion engine as well as speeding up the warm-up thereof.
In the prior art disclosed in the above Publication, a combustion chamber of the combustion heater includes an intake duct and an exhaust duct both of which are intake duct and an exhaust duct both of which are connected to an intake pipe of the internal combustion engine, and the air flowing through the intake pipe flows via a route of the intake pipe→the intake duct→the combustion chamber→the exhaust duct→the intake pipe, and at its halfway supplies the air as combustion air to the combustion heater. Further, an opening/closing valve defined as an intake air resisting structure is disposed at a portion of the intake pipe between respective connecting points for connecting the intake duct and the exhaust duct to the intake pipe.
As it is well known, in the internal combustion engine, a pressure and an air flow rate in the intake system change depending on a rotational speed of the engine body. Therefore, with the combustion heater disclosed in the above publication, the flow rate of the air supplied to the combustion chamber via the intake duct from the intake pipe becomes excessively large or small depending on the rotational speed of the internal combustion engine. Then, the problem of the prior art disclosed in the above Publication is that the air flow rate becomes excessively large due to the higher rotational speed of the internal combustion engine. The reason is that the excessively large air flow rate implies a state which is the same as a phenomenon of a strong air blown into the combustion chamber from the intake duct, and an air/fuel ratio becomes lean to deteriorate an ignition in the combustion heater.
On the other hand, in the case of providing the intake system with the combustion heater by setting the intake and exhaust ducts proximal to each other on the intake pipe without having the opening/closing valve disposed in the intake pipe, a differential pressure between the intake duct and the exhaust duct is small, and, even when the internal combustion engine is at a high rotational speed, the excessively large flow rate does not occur in the combustion chamber of the combustion heater. Consequently, the ignition characteristic of the combustion heater is not bad. However, when at the high rotational speed, the pressure in the intake system decreases. Hence, an air density decreases, and the air/fuel ratio in the combustion chamber becomes rich, with the result that soot is easily produced on the combustion heater. This might lead to a possibility of deteriorating the burning characteristic of the combustion heater.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is a primary object of the present invention, which was devised under such circumstances, to provide a combustion heater for an internal combustion engine that is capable of reliably effecting an ignition in the combustion heater even during an operation of the internal combustion engine and improving a burning characteristic preferable.
To accomplish the above object, the combustion heater for the internal combustion engine of the present invention is constructed of the following structure.
According to a first aspect of the present invention, a combustion heater for an internal combustion engine, which operates when said internal combustion engine is in a predetermined operation state, thereby raising temperatures of engine related elements, said combustion heater comprising: a combustion chamber for executing a combustion; an air supply passageway for supplying said combustion chamber with air for the combustion; an igniting device for igniting a fuel for the combustion in said combustion chamber; and a combustion gas discharge passageway for discharging from said combustion chamber a combustion gas emitted when burned in said combustion chamber, and wherein at least one of said air supply passageway and said combustion gas discharge passageway is connected to an intake passageway of said internal combustion engine, and said combustion heater including: air supply quantity regulating means for regulating a quantity of air supplied to said combustion chamber via said air supply passageway; and control means for controlling an operating state of said air supply quantity regulating means in accordance with a rotational speed of said internal combustion engine.
Herein, the combustion chamber includes a combustion cylinder serving as a flame source from which flames are emitted, and a combustion fuel is supplied to the combustion cylinder via a proper fuel supply passageway.
The predetermined operating state of the internal combustion engine means that, at a cold time at which a temperature is in a range of from about −10° C. to about 15° C. and at an extremely cold time at which a temperature is about −10° C. or lower, the internal combustion engine is being operated, or after starting the internal combustion engine in the above-mentioned temperature, or, irrespective of the above-mentioned temperatures, an exothermic quantity of the internal combustion engine itself is small and a quantity of heat received by the cooling water is small due to the small exothermic quantity of the internal combustion engine itself.
According to a second aspect of the present invention, the combustion heater for the internal combustion engine according to the first aspect of the invention, wherein the air for the combustion may be introduced into the combustion chamber from the intake passageway via the air supply passageway or directly from the atmospheric air via the air supply passageway.
According to a third aspect of the present invention, the combustion heater for the internal combustion engine according to the second aspect of the invention, wherein the igniting device is preferably a heating plug.
The heating plug sparks in a state where the combustion cylinder is supplied with the combustion air and the combustion fuel, whereby the flames are emitted from the combustion cylinder.
According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, the combustion heater for the internal combustion engine according to the third aspect of the invention, wherein it is preferable that the combustion gas discharge passageway is an introducing passageway for introducing the combustion gas emitted from the combustion chamber into the intake passageway.
According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, the combustion heater for the internal combustion engine according to the fourth aspect of the invention, wherein the engine related elements are, for example, the engine cooling water and the internal combustion engine itself into which the combustion gas of the combustion heater is introduced as intake air.
According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, the combustion heater for the internal combustion engine according to the fifth aspect of the invention, wherein the control means may be a central p
Kenyon & Kenyon
Kwon John
Toyota Jidosha & Kabushiki Kaisha
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