Internal combustion engine and control method for same

1. An internal combustion engine comprising:

a fuel injection valve configured to inject fuel into a cylinder;

an exhaust catalyst arranged in an exhaust passage and configured to purify an exhaust gas;

an EGR (Exhaust Gas Recirculation) system branched from a midway position of the exhaust passage and joined to a midway position of an intake passage, and configured to recirculate an exhaust gas to the cylinder;

a differential pressure sensor configured to acquire a purification situation of the exhaust catalyst;

a navigation system configured to acquire a road situation of a road on which the vehicle is planned to travel, wherein the road situation is either a gradient of the road or a relationship between the vehicle and a preceding vehicle; and

an electronic controller connected to the differential pressure sensor, the navigation system, and the fuel injection valve via signal lines,

wherein the electronic controller is configured to:

execute a regeneration control of monitoring the purification situation via the differential pressure sensor and supplying unburned fuel, which is fuel that does not contribute to driving among fuel injected from the fuel injection valve, to the exhaust catalyst in a case where the purification situation becomes a deteriorated situation; and

execute a control of monitoring the road situation via the navigation system, predicting, at a time before the vehicle travels the road situation, whether or not the road situation becomes an accelerator off situation in which an accelerator opening degree of an accelerator pedal becomes off, and stopping the regeneration control when it is predicted that the road situation becomes the accelerator off situation.

2. The internal combustion engine according to claim 1 , further comprising:

an accelerator opening degree sensor configured to acquire the accelerator opening degree,

wherein the electronic controller is connected to the accelerator opening degree sensor via a signal line,

wherein the electronic controller is configured to execute a control of monitoring the accelerator opening degree via the accelerator opening degree sensor and opening an EGR valve arranged in an EGR passage of the EGR system when the accelerator opening degree becomes off.

3. The internal combustion engine according to claim 2 ,

wherein the electronic controller is configured to execute a control of restarting the regeneration control when the accelerator opening degree actually becomes off and then on after the regeneration control is stopped, before the road situation becomes the accelerator off situation.

4. An internal combustion engine comprising:

an exhaust catalyst arranged in an exhaust passage and configured to purify an exhaust gas;

an EGR (Exhaust Gas Recirculation) system branched from a midway position of the exhaust passage and joined to a midway position of an intake passage, and configured to recirculate an exhaust gas to the cylinder;

a differential pressure sensor configured to acquire a purification situation of the exhaust catalyst;

a navigation system configured to acquire a road situation of a road on which a vehicle is planned to travel;

an electronic controller connected to the differential pressure sensor and the navigation system via signal lines; and

an unburned fuel injection valve arranged in a portion of the exhaust passage which is located upstream of a branching point to an EGR passage of the EGR system in a flowing direction of an exhaust gas,

wherein the electronic controller is configured to:

execute a regeneration control of monitoring the purification situation via the differential pressure sensor and supplying unburned fuel injected from the unburned fuel injection valve, to the exhaust catalyst in a case where the purification situation becomes a deteriorated situation; and

execute a control of monitoring the road situation via the navigation system, predicting, at a time before the vehicle travels the road situation, whether or not the road situation becomes an accelerator off situation in which an accelerator opening degree of an accelerator pedal becomes off, and stopping the regeneration control when it is predicted that the road situation becomes the accelerator off situation.

5. A method of controlling an internal combustion engine in which an exhaust catalyst arranged in an exhaust passage is configured to purify an exhaust gas, and an EGR (Exhaust Gas Recirculation) system branched from a midway position of the exhaust passage and joined to a midway position of an intake passage is configured to recirculate the exhaust gas to a cylinder, the method comprising:

acquiring a purification situation of the exhaust catalyst;

determining whether or not the purification situation has become a deteriorated situation;

regenerating the exhaust catalyst by supplying unburned fuel which does not contribute to driving to the exhaust catalyst, in a case where it is determined that the purification situation has become the deteriorated situation;

acquiring a road situation of a road on which the vehicle is planned to travel, wherein the road situation is either a gradient of the road or a relationship between the vehicle and a preceding vehicle

predicting, at a time in advance of the vehicle traveling the road situation, whether or not the road situation will become an accelerator off situation in which an accelerator opening degree of an accelerator pedal becomes off; and

stopping the regenerating of the exhaust catalyst when the road situation actually becomes the accelerator off situation, after it is predicted in advance that the road situation will become the accelerator off situation.

6. The method according to claim 5 , further comprising:

acquiring an accelerator opening degree;

determining whether or not the accelerator opening degree is off; and

opening an EGR valve arranged in an EGR passage of the EGR system, in a case where it is determined that the accelerator opening degree is off.

7. The internal combustion engine according to claim 1 , wherein the accelerator off situation is a situation where a gradient of the road on which the vehicle is planned to travel is equal to or higher than a given gradient threshold, or a relationship between the vehicle and a preceding vehicle is a given relationship.