394results about "Control devices for cooling apparatus" patented technology

The invention provides a controller and cylinder deactivation system to regenerate an exhaust aftertreatment device for a multicylinder engine that operates primarily at an air/fuel ratio that is lean of stoichiometry. The invention uses the cylinder deactivation system to control temperature and air/fuel ratio of an exhaust gas feedstream going into an aftertreatment device. The invention also increases the amount of fuel delivered to each non-deactivated cylinder by an amount sufficient to maintain operating power of the engine. The regeneration action includes desorbing NOx from a NOx adsorber catalyst, desulfating the NOx adsorber catalyst, and purging a diesel particulate trap.

An electronically controlled thermostat control method is obtained which makes it possible to eliminate the response delay from the time that the required cooling water temperature is set to the time that the actual cooling water temperature reaches the set water temperature by controlling the flow rate, and to realize high cooling water temperature tracking characteristics with a high degree of precision at a low cost. The method of the present invention is characterized in that in an electronically controlled thermostat which is used to control the cooling water temperature of an engine, and which comprises an actuator that can arbitrarily vary the degree of valve opening without depending only on the actual cooling water temperature, the actuator is controlled by the control controller, which has means for calculating the elapsed time from the powering of the actuator to the variation of the water temperature for predicting the water temperature after the elapsed time when the cooling water temperature is controlled to an arbitrarily set water temperature, and the actuator is controlled in advance in accordance with the above-described predicted water temperature.

There are provided a radiator passage, a thermostat to open and close the radiator passage according to an engine temperature, a heater passage, a flow adjusting device to adjust a flow amount of the coolant that flows in the water jacket according to the engine temperature at an engine start. The flow adjusting device is configured so as to adjust the flow amount of the coolant flowing in the water jacket to be a normal amount when the engine temperature is in an extremely-cold condition, to be zero or smaller than the normal amount when the engine is in a mild-cold condition, and to be the normal amount when the engine is in a warm condition. The heater passage is in opened sate at least when the engine is in the extremely-cold condition.

A plug of a power cord of a block heater which is mounted to a cylinder block of an engine, is connected to a household power receptacle to energize the block heater during an engine stoppage in cold climate. Thus, an engine coolant is kept warm to prevent freeze. Existence/nonexistence of the energization to the block heater during the engine stoppage is determined based on a behavior of coolant temperature or a behavior of engine rotation speed immediately after an engine start. If it is determined that the energization to the block heater exists, abnormality diagnosis of a cooling system is prohibited or a condition for the abnormality diagnosis is corrected and estimation coolant temperature is corrected.

In a warm-up system that pre-warms up of an engine (E) by transferring heat from a heat source to an engine cooling water circulation circuit (1) of a vehicle, a residential hot water circuit (2) that uses a household heat source is provided as the heat source, and a one-touch connector (3) is provided in the engine cooling water circulation circuit (1) and the residential hot water circuit (2). The one-touch connector (3) connects the two circuits (1, 2) prior to start-up of the engine (E) such that heat is transferred to the engine cooling water circulation circuit (1), and disconnects the two circuits (1, 2) following heat transfer in preparation for start-up of the engine (E).

An ECU executes a program including a step of, if an engine is not in a cold state, controlling electric power to be supplied to an electric water pump such that a flow rate requested at the engine is obtained, a step of, if the engine is in the cold state and a heater is not requested to operate, providing control such that the electric water pump is stopped, and a step of, if the engine is in the cold state and the heater is requested to operate, controlling the electric power to be supplied to the electric water pump such that the flow rate is set to the highest one of the flow rate requested at the engine, a flow rate requested at a heater core, and a flow rate requested at an exhaust heat recovery device.

The instant invention pertains to a road vehicle's axial flow cooling fan which normally draws cooling air from in front of the vehicle and blows it into the engine bay. The instant invention includes a control circuit for the fan motor that provides variable speed and bi-directional, or reverse and normal, fan operation. Reverse fan operation blows air from the engine bay through the radiator and out the front of the vehicle, and normal fan operation blows into the engine bay. Two input sensors feed the control circuit, one for road speed of the vehicle and other for engine temperature. When the engine is below its operating temperature and the vehicle is moving, the fan is made to blows in reverse at a speed proportional to road speed so as to block cold ram air from entering and blasting onto a warming engine. This speeds engine warm-up to reduce emissions, improve fuel economy, and speed windshield defogging. The fan may also be made to blow in reverse when the engine is cold and the vehicle is stopped, in order that exhaust-heated air from the exhaust manifold behind the engine, may be drawn forward over the engine block to speed its warming. When the engine is above its operating temperature and the vehicle is idling or moving slowly, as in traffic, then the control circuit causes the fan to again blow in reverse cooling both the radiator and the engine bay components and preventing hot, noxious fumes from vehicles in front from being drawn into the vehicle. Blowing in reverse in traffic conditions also eliminates hot air looping back to the front of the car and drawn in through the radiator. As vehicle speed increases, the fan is made to revert to normal operation augmenting ram air flow through the radiator.

A system for heating and cooling the transmission fluid including a heat exchanger adapted to transfer heat between an engine coolant and a transmission fluid and a controller for controlling a valve to place the system into a select one of three modes including a heater core priority mode wherein no engine coolant flows to the heat exchanger, a heating mode wherein hot engine coolant flows directly to the heat exchanger from the engine and a cooling mode wherein cool engine coolant flows directly to the heat exchanger from the radiator, whereby the transmission fluid is heated in an efficient manner with minimal impact on passenger compartment heating.

A controller for the hybrid system includes: an alcohol concentration detector that detects alcohol concentration of fuel; a demanded coolant temperature setting device that sets a demanded coolant temperature higher as the alcohol concentration increases; an internal combustion engine stopped state determination device that determines whether an internal combustion engine is stopped; an external electric power source connection determination device that determines whether a storage battery is connected to an external electric power source; and a coolant pre-heating device that supplies electric power to a coolant heater until coolant temperature of the coolant reaches the demanded coolant temperature if the internal combustion engine is in the stopped state and the storage battery is connected to the external electric power source.

Methods and systems are provided for expediting engine system heating by stagnating coolant in one of a plurality of loops in an engine cooling system. Degradation of the various valves and thermostats of the cooling system can be diagnosed by adjusting the valve and monitoring changes in one or more of coolant temperature, transmission temperature and cabin temperature. Based on engine operating conditions, the various valves may be adjusted to vary coolant temperature in different regions of the cooling system, thereby providing fuel economy benefits.

A method, comprising during a vehicle engine cold start, opening a first valve coupled between a first container containing an adsorbent and a second container containing an adsorbate, circulating a first fluid through a first conduit coupled to a first heat exchanger located within the first container and a second heat exchanger located outside the first container, and circulating a second fluid through a second conduit coupled to the second heat exchanger. In this way, heat may be generated at the adsorber during a cold start and subsequently transferred to the cooling jacket of the vehicle engine and/or other vehicle compartments, thereby decreasing the warm-up time for the engine.

The state of a fluid coupling in a motor vehicle powertrain is selectively controlled during neutral idle operation of the engine for increasing the engine temperature to a desired level. The fluid coupling includes an input member connected to the engine and an output member connected to the transmission, and the output member is selectively grounded under specified enable conditions to impose an engine load for raising the engine operating temperature. The output member is released to resume normal operation of the powertrain when the enable conditions are no longer met or an estimate of the fluid temperature in the coupling reaches or exceeds a predefined temperature.

An engine rapid warm-up system includes cooling water circulating through an engine 1, a radiator 2 introducing the cooling water to be cooled, a heat accumulator 3 storing the cooling water heated by the engine 1, and a pipe 6 and a water pump 7 that circulate the cooling water through the engine 1, the radiator 2 and the heat accumulator 3. In the system, high temperature cooling water that is stored in the heat accumulator 3 is controlled to be sent to and warm up the engine 1 at engine start, heat of exhaust gas is controlled to recover so that the cooling water obtained after heat recovery is circulated through and warms up the engine 1.

The present invention relates to a method and system for detecting a presence of a block heater in an automobile. In one embodiment, an automobile includes an engine, a radiator, an engine coolant temperature (“ECT”) sensor, and/or an engine control unit (“ECU”). The radiator delivers coolant to the engine to cool the engine. The ECT sensor is located in a path of the coolant and determines ECT data. The ECU determines a temperature difference between a current maximum temperature of the engine coolant temperature data at a first time period and a current minimum temperature of the engine coolant temperature data at a second time period after the first time period. When the temperature difference is greater than a predetermined temperature threshold, the ECU determines that the block heater is present. When the block heater is present, the ECU masks any engine malfunction detections.

A cooling water circuit system for an engine includes a radiator bypass passage through which cooling water of the engine bypasses a radiator, a heat exchanger disposed in the radiator bypass circuit to perform heat exchange between the cooling water and lubricant oil of an automatic transmission, and a radiator downstream passage through which the cooling water from the radiator flows into the heat exchanger. Further, a flow adjusting unit is disposed at a join portion where the radiator bypass passage and the radiator downstream passage are joined, to adjust a flow ratio between the cooling water flowing from the radiator downstream passage to the heat exchanger and the cooling water flowing from the radiator bypass passage to the heat exchanger. The flow adjusting unit is controlled by a control unit in accordance with the temperature detected by the temperature detection unit.

A hybrid system control apparatus is provided in which an intercooler (15) is disposed upstream of the motor cooling radiator (70) in a flow path of the ambient air flowing in an engine compartment, and/or is disposed such that at least a portion of the intercooler and a portion of the motor cooling radiator contact each other. The hybrid system control apparatus includes a warm-up portion (60) that increases temperature of the boost air by controlling a load of the engine in cold start of a hybrid system (1) such that the boost pressure from the forced air induction device is equal to or higher than a target boost pressure.

An engine coolant pump drive system for a vehicle having an engine, an engine coolant system, and at least one sensor for sensing at least one operational condition of the vehicle is disclosed. The pump drive system includes a magnetorheological fluid (MRF) clutch, and a coolant pump. The MRF clutch includes a torque input section coupled to a torque output section via a MRF, the torque input section being configured to receive a torque input from the engine. The coolant pump is configured for operable communication with the torque output section of the MRF clutch. In response to a signal from the at least one sensor, the MRF clutch is configured to provide a continuously variable torque transfer from the torque input section to the torque output section, thereby providing for variable coolant flow in the engine coolant system via the coolant pump capable of a continuously variable speed.

The invention discloses an intelligent cooling system based on split cooling and reverse cooling for an engine, and a control method. The cooling system comprises a cylinder cover water jacket, a body water jacket, an electronically-controlled water pump, electronic thermostats, an electronically-controlled fan, a heat dissipater, an expansion water tank, temperature sensors, motors and an electronic control unit. During a working process of the system, the electronically-controlled water pump pumps a cooling liquid in the engine, the first electronic thermostat controls the cooling liquid to enter the cylinder cover water jacket and the body water jacket according to cooling liquid temperature signals of a cylinder cover and a body respectively, flow from top down, and flow out after the cooling the cylinder cover and the body; and the second electronic thermostat distributes the flow rate of the cooling liquid entering large circulation and small circulation according to a cooling liquid temperature of a main tube, and the cooling liquid is circulated and then pumped in the engine to cool. The cooling system disclosed by the invention is capable of accurately distributing the flow rate of the cooling liquid in the cylinder body and the body of the engine, reducing the phenomenon of non-uniform cooling, and shortening the warm-up time of the engine; and the heat states of heated components are optimized through the reverse cooling.