System for determining critical on-times for fuel injectors

The present invention relates generally to electronically controlled fuel systems for internal combustion engines, and more specifically to systems for determining critical on-times associated with fuel injectors for internal combustion engines.

Electronically controlled fuel systems for internal combustion engines typically include one or more fuel injectors responsive to one or more corresponding activation signals to inject fuel into the engine. It is desirable to monitor injected fuel quantities in order to evaluate, at least in part, operation of the one or more fuel injectors.

The present invention may comprise one or more of the features recited in the attached claims, and/or one or more of the following features and combinations thereof. A method of determining a critical on-time for a selected one of a plurality of fuel injectors coupled to a source of fuel via a fuel rail of a fuel system for an internal combustion engine may comprise disabling fuel flow from the source of fuel to the fuel rail, periodically sampling fuel rail pressure, activating the selected fuel injector for an on-time duration while inhibiting fuel injection by remaining ones of the plurality of fuel injectors, determining from the fuel rail pressure samples a first pressure drop in the fuel rail resulting from activation of the selected fuel injector for the on-time duration, processing the first pressure drop to determine whether or not the selected fuel injector injected fuel into the engine in response to activation for the on-time duration, repeatedly modifying the on-time duration and then executing the periodically sampling, activating, determining and processing steps until a critical on-time is determined that corresponds to a minimum on-time duration to which the selected fuel injector is responsive to inject a discernable amount of fuel into the engine.

The method may further comprise storing the critical on-time for the selected fuel injector in a memory unit.

Periodically sampling, activating, determining, processing and repeatedly modifying may be carried out for remaining ones of the plurality of fuel injectors to determine a critical on-time for each of the remaining ones of the plurality of fuel injectors.

The on-time duration may be initially selected such that activation of the selected fuel injector for the on-time duration does not result in injection of any discernable amount of fuel into the engine. Repeatedly modifying the on-time duration may then comprise successively incrementing the on-time duration by an increment value. Alternatively, the on-time duration may be initially selected such that activation of the selected fuel injector for the on-time duration results in injection of fuel into the engine. Repeatedly modifying the on-time duration may then comprise successively decrementing the on-time duration by a decrement value. Alternatively still, repeatedly modifying the on-time duration may comprise selecting on-time durations on either side of an expected critical on-time for the selected injector and then incrementally advancing the on-time duration toward the expected critical on-time until the minimum on-time duration is determined.

Each execution of the periodically sampling, activating, determining and processing steps may be carried out over a single engine cycle.

The method may further comprise determining from the fuel rail pressure samples a second pressure drop in the fuel rail pressure resulting from leakage of fuel by the fuel system when none of the plurality of fuel injectors is injecting fuel into the engine, and determining from the fuel pressure samples a mean value of the fuel pressure samples. Processing the first pressure drop may further comprise processing the first pressure drop, the second pressure drop and the mean value of the fuel pressure samples to determine whether or not the selected fuel injector injected fuel into the engine in response to activation of the selected fuel injector for the on-time duration. The processing step may comprise processing the first pressure drop, the second pressure drop and the mean value of the fuel pressure using a first discriminant function to produce an inject value corresponding to a likelihood that the activation of the selected fuel injector for the on-time duration resulted in injection of fuel by the selected fuel injector into the engine, processing the first pressure drop, the second pressure drop and the mean value of the fuel pressure using a second discriminant function to produce an inject-not value corresponding to a likelihood that the activation of the selected fuel injector for the on-time duration resulted in no injection of fuel by the selected fuel injector into the engine, and processing the inject and inject not values to produce an inject/no-inject value, the inject/no-inject value having a value indicating that the selected fuel injector injected fuel into the engine in response to activation of the selected fuel injector for the on-time duration if the inject value is greater than the inject-not value, and otherwise having a value indicating that the selected fuel injector did not inject fuel into the engine in response to activation of the selected fuel injector for the on-time duration. Each execution of the steps of periodically sampling, activating, determining the first pressure drop, determining the second pressure drop, determining the mean value of the fuel pressure, processing the first pressure drop, processing the second pressure drop and processing the inject and inject not values may be carried out over a single engine cycle. The method may further comprise processing a number of inject/no-inject values produced over a corresponding number of engine cycles to according to a voting process to determine whether or not the selected fuel injector injected fuel into the engine in response to activation of the selected fuel injector for the on-time duration.

Processing the number of inject/no-inject values may comprise determining a vote number corresponding to a number of times over the number of engine cycles that the inject/no-inject value indicates that the selected fuel injector injected fuel into the engine in response to activation of the selected fuel injector for the on-time duration, determining that the selected fuel injector injected fuel into the engine in response to activation of the selected fuel injector for the on-time duration if the vote number reaches a pass count value, and otherwise determining that the selected fuel injector did not inject a discernable amount of fuel into the engine in response to activation of the selected fuel injector for the on-time duration. Processing the number of inject/no-inject values may alternatively comprise determining a vote number corresponding to a number of times that the inject/no-inject value indicates that the selected fuel injector injected fuel into the engine in response to activation of the selected fuel injector for the on-time duration, determining that the selected fuel injector injected fuel into the engine in response to activation of the selected fuel injector for the on-time duration if the vote number reaches a pass count value before the number of engine cycles reaches an engine cycle count value, and determining that the selected fuel injector did not inject a discernable amount of fuel into the engine in response to activation of the selected fuel injector for the on-time duration if the number of engine cycles reaches the engine cycle count value before the vote number reaches the pass count value.

The method may further comprise filtering the second pressure drop over time to produce a filtered parasitic leakage value, comparing the filtered parasitic leakage value to a leakage threshold value, and storing an excessive parasitic leakage value, that is indicative of an excessive parasitic leakage condition, in a memory unit in a memory unit if the filtered parasitic leakage value is greater than the leakage threshold value.

A system for determining a critical on-time for a selected one of a plurality of fuel injectors in a fuel system for an internal combustion engine may comprise a fuel inlet metering valve having an inlet fluidly coupled to a source of fuel, a fuel pump having an inlet coupled to an outlet of the fuel inlet metering valve, a fuel rail coupled to an outlet of the fuel pump, a pressure sensor fluidly coupled to the fuel rail and configured to produce a pressure signal indicative of fuel pressure within the fuel rail, a plurality of fuel injectors fluidly coupled to the fuel rail, and a control circuit including a memory having instructions stored therein that are executable by the control circuit to control the fuel inlet metering valve to disable fuel flow from the source of fuel to the fuel rail, to periodically sample the pressure signal, to activate the selected fuel injector for an on-time duration while inhibiting fuel injection by remaining ones of the plurality of fuel injectors, to determine from the pressure signal samples a first pressure drop in the fuel rail resulting from activation of the selected fuel injector for the on-time duration, to process the first pressure drop to determine whether or not the selected fuel injector injected fuel into the engine in response to activation for the on-time duration, and to repeatedly modify the on-time duration and then execute the periodically sampling, activating, determining and processing steps until a critical on-time is determined that corresponds to a minimum on-time duration to which the selected fuel injector is responsive to inject a discernable amount of fuel into the engine.

The instructions stored in the memory may further include instructions that are executable by the control circuit to determine from the pressure signal samples a second pressure drop in the fuel rail pressure resulting from leakage of fuel by the fuel system when none of the plurality of fuel injectors is injecting fuel into the engine, and to determine from the pressure signal samples a mean value of the pressure signal samples. The instructions stored in the memory may further include instructions that are executable by the control circuit to determine whether or not the selected fuel injector injected fuel into the engine in response to activation for the on-time duration by processing the first pressure drop, the second pressure drop and the mean value of the fuel pressure samples to determine whether or not the selected fuel injector injected fuel into the engine in response to activation of the selected fuel injector for the on-time duration.

The instructions stored in the memory may further include instructions that are executable by the control circuit to determine whether or not the selected fuel injector injected fuel into the engine in response to activation for the on-time duration by processing the first pressure drop, the second pressure drop and the mean value of the fuel pressure using a first discriminant function to produce an inject value corresponding to a likelihood that the activation of the selected fuel injector for the on-time duration resulted in injection of fuel by the selected fuel injector into the engine, by processing the first pressure drop, the second pressure drop and the mean value of the fuel pressure using a second discriminant function to produce an inject-not value corresponding to a likelihood that the activation of the selected fuel injector for the on-time duration resulted in no injection of fuel by the selected fuel injector into the engine, and by processing the inject and inject not values to produce an inject/no-inject value, the inject/no-inject value having a value indicating that the selected fuel injector injected fuel into the engine in response to activation of the selected fuel injector for the on-time duration if the inject value is greater than the inject-not value, and otherwise having a value indicating that the selected fuel injector did not inject fuel into the engine in response to activation of the selected fuel injector for the on-time duration.

The instructions stored in the memory may be executable by the control circuit to produce the inject/no-inject value during a single engine cycle. The instructions stored in the memory may further include instructions that are executable by the control circuit to process a number of inject/no-inject values produced over a corresponding number of engine cycles to according to a voting process to determine whether or not the selected fuel injector injected fuel into the engine in response to activation of the selected fuel injector for the on-time duration. The instructions stored in the memory may further include instructions that are executable by the control circuit to process the number of inject/no-inject values by determining a vote number corresponding to a number of times over the number of engine cycles that the inject/no-inject value indicates that the selected fuel injector injected fuel into the engine in response to activation of the selected fuel injector for the on-time duration, by determining that the selected fuel injector injected fuel into the engine in response to activation of the selected fuel injector for the on-time duration if the vote number reaches a pass count value, and by otherwise determining that the selected fuel injector did not inject a discernable amount of fuel into the engine in response to activation of the selected fuel injector for the on-time duration.

The instructions stored in the memory may further include instructions that are executable by the control circuit to process the number of inject/no-inject values by determining a vote number corresponding to a number of times that the inject/no-inject value indicates that the selected fuel injector injected fuel into the engine in response to activation of the selected fuel injector for the on-time duration, by determining that the selected fuel injector injected fuel into the engine in response to activation of the selected fuel injector for the on-time duration if the vote number reaches a pass count value before the number of engine cycles reaches an engine cycle count value, and by determining that the selected fuel injector did not inject a discernable amount of fuel into the engine in response to activation of the selected fuel injector for the on-time duration if the number of engine cycles reaches the engine cycle count value before the vote number reaches the pass count value.

The instructions stored in the memory may further include instructions that are executable by the control circuit to store the critical on-time in the memory.

The instructions stored in the memory may further include instructions that are executable by the control circuit to determine critical on-times for remaining ones of the plurality of fuel injectors.

The instructions stored in the memory may further include instructions that are executable by the control circuit to determine the critical on-time using the pressure signal sampled over a single engine cycle.