IP Library Granted Patent US 8,215,284
Granted Patent B2
US 8,215,284 · App. 12/450,452 · Granted Jul 10, 2012

Micro-pilot injection ignition type gas engine

Assignee: Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd.
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Quick Facts
Patent No.
US 8,215,284
App. No.
12/450,452
Granted
Jul 10, 2012
Kind
B2
Abstract

What is disclosed is a micro-pilot injection ignition type gas engine, whereby an air fuel ratio control in starting the engine is executed with enhanced precision, by means of introducing skip-firing intermittent operations which reflect the engine operation conditions, while an idling time span can be shortened or omitted. The engine includes: a gas valve that opens and closes a fuel-gas passage in front of each cylinder, so as to arbitrarily control the throat area as well as the opening-closing time span of the gas valve; an engine speed detecting unit to detect the engine speed; a combustion diagnosis unit to detect an engine combustion state through a cylinder pressure distribution along elapsed time, as to each cylinder; an opening-closing control unit as to the gas valve, so as to control the intermittent opening-closing of the gas valve according to the levels of the detected engine speed as well as the cylinder pressure distribution; whereby, in starting the engine, the intermittent opening-closing of the gas-valve enables at least one skip-firing mode that brings an enhanced fuel-supply pressure-pulsation with which a relatively large amount of fuel-gas is supplied per engine cycle with firing so that the air fuel-gas ratio of each cylinder reaches a prescribed target value.

Claims (13)

1. A micro-pilot injection ignition type gas engine that ignites and burns premixed air fuel-gas mixture inducted into each main combustion chamber,

by means of at least one pilot flame that jets out from a pre-chamber to the main chamber through at least one pre-chamber nozzle hole communicating the main chamber to the pre-chamber in which a fuel-oil injector injects micro-pilot fuel oil to produce a pre-chamber combustion gas as a source of the flame jet,

the gas engine comprising:

a gas valve that delivers and cuts a fuel-gas at a position in front of each cylinder, so as to arbitrarily control the throat area as well as an opening-or-closing time span of the gas valve;

an engine speed detecting unit to detect the engine speed;

a cylinder pressure sensor provided at each cylinder so as to continually measure pressure levels as to each cylinder;

a combustion diagnosis unit to monitor the pressure levels so that the diagnosis unit analyzes an engine combustion state through a cylinder pressure distribution along elapsed time, the distribution as to each cylinder being formed in the diagnosis unit;

an opening-closing control unit as to the gas valve, so as to control an intermittent opening-or-closing of the gas valve in response to the engine speed and the pressure distribution;

whereby, in starting the engine, the intermittent opening-or-closing of the gas-valve enables at least one skip-firing mode that brings an enhanced fuel-supply pressure-pulsation with which an increased amount of fuel-gas is supplied per one engine-cycle with firing so that the air fuel-gas ratio of each cylinder reaches a prescribed target value.

2. The micro-pilot injection ignition type gas engine according to the claim 1 , whereby the opening-closing control unit as to the gas valve makes the gas valve for each cylinder open and close, intermittently per each cylinder in turn according to a firing sequence of the engine, so that the air fuel-gas ratio reaches the prescribed target value,

with the at-least-one skip-firing mode, and

with a series of time spans as to the variable valve-opening-time span of the gas valve, the time spans being changed step by step.

3. The micro-pilot injection ignition type gas engine according to the claim 1 , whereby the opening-closing control unit makes the gas valve for each cylinder open and close with a first skip-firing mode of a lower valve-opening-ratio in the case when the cylinder pressure distribution along elapsed time the distribution which is analyzed by the combustion diagnosis unit corresponds to a prescribed target distribution, whereas the opening-closing control unit makes the gas valve open and close with a second skip-firing mode of a higher valve-opening-ratio in the case when the cylinder pressure distribution along elapsed time does not reach the prescribed target distribution.

Assignments (2)
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Sep 13, 2018
From: MITSUBISHI HEAVY INDUSTRIES, LTD.
To: MITSUBISHI HEAVY INDUSTRIES ENGINE & TURBOCHARGER, LTD.
Reel/Frame 047063/0420 →
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Oct 29, 2009
From: SUZUKI, HAJIME; NISHIO, HIDEKI; SHIMIZU, YUUICHI
To: MITSUBISHI HEAVY INDUSTRIES, LTD.
Reel/Frame 023459/0823 →
Priority Claims (1)
JP 2007-323878 · Dec 14, 2007 · national
Continuity (1)
Related Publication 20100043744A1 · Feb 25, 2010