Determining The Opening Energy Of A Fuel Injector

摘要

A method for determining the opening energy of a fuel injector of an internal combustion engine includes (a) operating the engine in a steady-state operating state, wherein electrical excitation is applied to the fuel injector to cause a fuel injection in each working cycle of the engine, (b) applying additional electrical excitation to the fuel injector for subsequent working cycle(s) for a possible additional partial fuel injection, wherein the additional electrical excitation is initially insufficient to cause an additional partial fuel injection, (c) successively increasing the additional electrical excitation until an additional partial fuel injection occurs, which brings about a second operating state of the engine different from the steady-state operating state, (d) detection of the second operating state, and (e) determination of the opening energy for the fuel injector based on the energy of the additional electrical excitation needed to bring about the second operating state of the engine.

主权项

1. A method for determining a minimum opening energy for a fuel injector of an internal-combustion engine, the method comprising:
operating the internal-combustion engine in a non-transient first operating state, wherein in each working cycle of the internal-combustion engine an electrical excitation that results in an injection of fuel is applied to the fuel injector, in at least one subsequent working cycle of the engine:
applying an additional electrical excitation, corresponding to a possible additional partial injection of fuel, to the fuel injector, wherein an energy of the additional electrical excitation is initially insufficient to effectively cause an additional partial injection of fuel,successively increasing the energy of the additional electrical excitation until an additional partial injection of fuel by the fuel injector occurs, which additional partial injection changes the operating state from the non-transient first operating state to a second operating state of the internal-combustion engine different from the non-transient first operating state,detecting the second operating state of the internal-combustion engine, anddetermining the minimum opening energy for the fuel injector as the energy of the additional electrical excitation that caused the additional partial injection of fuel to thereby change the operating state of the internal-combustion engine to the second operating state.