Adaptive idle stroke compensation for fuel injection valves

1. A method for operating an internal combustion engine having an injection system comprising, an injector indirectly driven by an actuator, and a high-pressure accumulator, the method comprising:

repeatedly applying a series of electrical test pulses with iteratively increasing energy to the actuator of the injector during specified operating phases;

for a first series of the electrical test pulses:

hydraulically determining an idle stroke of the actuator by:

determining a pressure drop in the high-pressure accumulator resulting from each test pulse;

determining a particular test pulse for which the determined pressure drop exceeds a reference pressure drop corresponding to the idle stroke of the actuator;

determining a voltage drop at the actuator of the injector for each electrical test pulse; and

determining the voltage drop corresponding to the determined particular test pulse; and

updating, based on the voltage drop corresponding to the determined particular test pulse, a reference voltage used for electrically determining the idle stroke of the actuator; and

for a second series of the electrical test pulses subsequent to the first series:

electrically determining the idle stroke of the actuator based on the updated reference voltage.

2. A method for operating an internal combustion engine having an injection system comprising an injector indirectly driven by an actuator, and a high-pressure accumulator, the method comprising:

repeatedly applying a series of electrical test pulses with iteratively increasing energy to the actuator of the injector;

repeatedly electrically determining an idle stroke of the actuator by:

for each series of electrical test pulses with iteratively increasing energy applied to the actuator:

determining a voltage drop at the actuator of the injector resulting from each test pulse; and

comparing the voltage drop determined for each test pulse with a reference voltage corresponding to an idle stroke;

identifying, based on the comparisons, the first test pulse having a voltage drop that exceeds the reference voltage, and defining the energy applied to the actuator during the first test pulse as an idle stroke voltage representing the idle stroke of the actuator;

identifying a change in the determined idle stroke voltage over time, the change in the determined idle stroke voltage representing a change in the idle stroke of the actuator over time; and

making a corresponding correction to the injection time of the injector in response to detecting the change in the determined idle stroke voltage over time.

3. The method of claim 2 , comprising, in parallel with the repeated electrically determination of the idle stroke, repeatedly hydraulically determining the idle stroke of the actuator by determining a pressure drop in the high-pressure accumulator for each electrical test pulse.

4. The method of claim 2 , further comprising repeatedly hydraulically determining, the idle stroke of the actuator by determining a pressure drop in the high-pressure accumulator for each of a series of electrical test pulses,

wherein the repeated hydraulic determination of the idle stroke, or the repeated electrical determination of the idle stroke, or a combined hydraulic and electrical idle stroke determination is carried out as a function of a respective working point of the internal combustion engine.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the combined hydraulic and electrical idle stroke determination is carried out in a defined central pressure range of the high-pressure accumulator.

6. The method of claim 4 , wherein the combined hydraulic and electrical determination of the idle stroke includes correlating the pressure drop determined during the hydraulic determination of the idle stroke with the voltage drop determined during the electrical determination of the idle stroke to define a transmission function, which is used as a reference function during a subsequent electrical determination of the idle stroke.

7. The method of claim 4 , wherein in pressure ranges in which no parallel hydraulic and electrical idle stroke determination can take place, a reference voltage curve is formed from an overlapping pressure range from the profile of a reference voltage curve according to a model.

8. An internal combustion engine, comprising:

an injection system comprising an injector indirectly driven by means of an actuator, and a high-pressure accumulator; and

a control system programmed to:

repeatedly apply a series of electrical test pulses with iteratively increasing energy to the actuator of the injector during specified operating phases;

for a first series of the electrical test pulses:

hydraulically determine an idle stroke of the actuator by:

determining a pressure drop in the high-pressure accumulator resulting from each test pulse;

determining a particular test pulse for which the determined pressure drop exceeds a reference pressure drop corresponding to the idle stroke of the actuator;

determine a voltage drop at the actuator of the injector for each electrical test pulse; and

determine the voltage drop corresponding to the determined particular test pulse; and

update, based on the voltage drop corresponding to the determined particular test pulse, a reference voltage used for electrically determining the idle stroke of the actuator; and

for a second series of the electrical test pulses subsequent to the first series:

electrically determine the idle stroke of the actuator based on the updated reference voltage.