Internal-combustion engines – Charge forming device – Heating of combustible mixture
Reexamination Certificate
2002-09-05
2003-06-03
McMahon, Marguerite (Department: 3747)
Internal-combustion engines
Charge forming device
Heating of combustible mixture
Reexamination Certificate
active
06571779
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an internal combustion engine having a combustion heater.
2. Related Background Art
It is required that a warm-up of an internal combustion engine be speeded up at a cold time, and it is desirable to enhance a performance of a car room heater of a vehicle mounted with the internal combustion engine.
This being the case, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No.62-75069 discloses a technology of increasing a temperature of the so-called engine cooling water contained in an internal combustion engine body by utilizing combustion heat emitted from a combustion heater provided in a intake system separately from an internal combustion engine body and thereby speeding up the warm-up thereof and enhancing the performance of the car room heater.
Such an effect can be expected on one hand, however, in the internal combustion engine having the combustion heater, there might arise a serious concern about a thermal damage to a intake system structure on the other hand because of an excessive rise in a intake system temperature due to an influence by combustion heat emitted from 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 technology of preventing a thermal damage to a intake system structure due to combustion heat emitted from a combustion heater in an internal combustion engine having a combustion heater.
To accomplish the above object, according to a first aspect of the present invention, an internal combustion engine having a combustion heater may comprise a combustion heater operating when the internal combustion engine is in a predetermined operation state, and engine related elements warmed by heat of a combustion gas emitted by the combustion heater during a combustion to speed up a warm-up of the internal combustion engine and to enhance a performance of a car room heater of a vehicle mounted with the internal combustion engine, wherein fresh air becomes a combustion gas mixed intake air flowing toward the internal combustion engine body by mixing the combustion gas of the combustion heater with the fresh air entering a intake air passageway of the internal combustion engine, a temperature of the combustion gas mixed intake air is obtained, and a combustion state of the combustion heater is controlled based on this temperature.
“when the internal combustion engine is in the predetermined operation state” expressed herein may include a time when the engine is on the operation or after starting up the internal combustion engine at a cold time or at an extremely cold time, and when an heating value from the internal combustion engine itself is small due to e.g., a burned fuel quantity is small as well as when a heat receiving value of cooling water is thereby small. Then, the cold time implies that an outside air temperature is approximately −10° C. to 15° C., and the extremely cold time implies that the outside air temperature is lower than approximately −10° C.
The “engine related elements” may be engine cooling water and the internal combustion engine itself in which the combustion gas of the combustion heater is mixed in the intake air.
In the internal combustion engine having the combustion heater according to the present invention, the combustion gas emitted from the combustion heater operating when the internal combustion engine is in the predetermined operation state, is mixed in the intake air passageway of the internal combustion engine, whereby fresh air having flowed so far through the intake air passageway becomes a high-temperature combustion gas mixed intake air assuming combustion heat of the combustion gas.
Then, before the combustion gas mixed intake air enters the internal combustion engine body, a temperature of the combustion gas mixed intake air is obtained, and a combustion state of the combustion heater is controlled based on the thus obtained temperature, precisely on a value indicated by this temperature. Therefore, if this control is preferably carried out, an excessive rise in the intake system temperature due to the combustion heat can be restrained while speeding up the warm-up and enhancing the performance of the car room heater by utilizing the combustion heat of the combustion heater. It is therefore feasible to prevent the thermal damage to the intake system structure.
“The control of the combustion state of the combustion heater” expressed herein is to control factors, such as a force and a magnitude etc. of flames in the combustion heater, for determining the increase and decrease in the temperature of the combustion gas emitted from the combustion heater.
What can be exemplified as the “factor” may be, for instance, quantities of the air and the fuel supplied for combustion to the combustion heater, etc. Particularly in the case of a combustion heater structured to increase a temperature of the engine cooling water by internally circulating the engine cooling water, what can be exemplified as the “factor” may be, for instance, a flow rate, etc., of the engine cooling water. By controlling those factors, if the combustion quantity of the combustion heater augments, the flames gain a force to increase in magnitude with the result that the temperature of the flames rises. Then, the temperature of the combustion gas emitted from the combustion heater also rises. Consequently, the temperature of the combustion gas mixed intake air also rises.
Whereas if the combustion quantity of the combustion heater decreases, the flames lose the force to decrease in magnitude, and the temperature of the flames also drops, with the result that the temperature of the combustion gas emitted from the combustion heater drops. Consequently, the temperature of the combustion gas mixed intake air also drops.
Moreover, the warm-up is speeded up by utilizing the combustion gas of the combustion heater, which emits almost no smoke; in other words, contains no carbon, and therefore, it can be expected that the durability be more enhanced the by a prior art EGR, etc.
Then, since the combustion gas discharge passageway of the combustion heater communicates with the intake air passageway, the combustion gas of the combustion heater is again burned in the internal combustion engine. Subsequently, when the combustion gas can be, upon reaching the exhaust system of the internal combustion engine, purified by an exhaust catalyst normally provide in this exhaust system.
Moreover, apertures of the combustion gas discharge passageway and the air supply passageway of the combustion heater are not exposed directly to the atmospheric air, and hence an effect of reducing noises can be expected.
According to a second aspect of the present invention, an internal combustion engine having a combustion heater may further comprise a combustion gas mixed intake air temperature detecting element for obtaining a temperature of the combustion gas mixed intake air by actually measuring this temperature.
As “the combustion gas mixed intake air temperature detecting element”, e.g., a temperature sensor may be exemplified.
According to a third aspect of the present invention, an internal combustion engine having a combustion heater may further comprise a combustion gas mixed intake air temperature calculating element for obtaining a temperature of the combustion gas mixed intake air by calculating a temperature of the fresh air and a temperature of the combustion gas. As a combustion gas mixed intake air temperature calculating element, it is preferable to use, for example, a two-dimensional map consisting of a temperature of the fresh air before being mixed with the combustion gas and an exhaust temperature of the combustion gas.
“The two-dimensional map” is structured such that, for instance, the axis of ordinates indicates the exhaust temperature of the combustion gas while the axis of abscissa indicates the temperature of the fresh air before being mixed with the combusti
Kenyon & Kenyon
McMahon Marguerite
Toyota Jidosha & Kabushiki Kaisha
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