Hybrid Engine Cylinder Deactivation for Cabin Heating
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Solution Overview
Problem
Hybrid vehicles face a challenge in heating the passenger cabin without reducing fuel economy, as starting the engine to supply heat decreases vehicle efficiency, especially at low driver demand torque levels.
Innovation Solution
Deactivating one or more engine cylinders in response to a passenger cabin heating request, while maintaining a group of cylinders active to operate at higher engine load, and routing coolant only to the active cylinders to reduce coolant warming and enhance heat transfer.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Temperature
If the engine is activated to heat the passenger cabin, then the passenger cabin heating is improved, but the vehicle fuel economy deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The engine is segmented into multiple cylinders that can be independently controlled. When heating is required, only a subset of cylinders is activated while others remain deactivated, allowing the engine to provide sufficient heat with reduced fuel consumption compared to running all cylinders.
Solution Approach 2:
Different regions of the engine (cylinders) are assigned different operational states based on local needs. The active cylinders operate at higher load to efficiently generate heat, while inactive cylinders remain dormant, creating a non-uniform operational pattern that optimizes fuel economy.
2Power
If all engine cylinders are activated to provide heat, then the heating capacity is improved, but the fuel consumption increases
Solution Approach 1:
The engine cylinders are divided into active and inactive groups. The active cylinders operate at higher load to provide sufficient heating capacity, while inactive cylinders consume no fuel, thereby reducing overall energy loss while maintaining adequate heating power.
Solution Approach 2:
Instead of activating all cylinders, only a partial number of cylinders are activated to provide the necessary heating capacity. This partial action approach avoids the excessive fuel consumption that would result from running all cylinders while still meeting the heating demand.
3Quantity of substance
If coolant is routed to all cylinders, then the thermal mass is increased, but the heating response time is delayed
Solution Approach 1:
The coolant flow is segmented to be routed only to active cylinders rather than all cylinders. This reduces the total thermal mass of coolant that needs to be heated, thereby decreasing the time required to achieve adequate heating response while still providing sufficient heat to the passenger cabin.
Solution Approach 2:
The coolant circulation path is extracted or restricted to only include active cylinders. By removing the need to heat coolant in inactive cylinders, the system reduces unnecessary thermal mass, accelerating the heating response time without compromising the heating capability of active cylinders.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This approach improves fuel economy and passenger cabin heating by reducing thermal mass and engine coolant warming, while maintaining efficient engine operation across various fuel types.
Implementation Method 1
The active engine cylinders may operate at a higher engine load
Implementation Method 2
engine coolant may be supplied to only the first group of cylinders so that less engine coolant is warmed, thereby reducing the mass of coolant being warmed and speeding up heat transfer from the engine to the passenger cabin
Data Source
AI summary
Systems and methods for providing heat to a passenger cabin of a hybrid vehicle that includes an internal combustion engine are presented. The systems and methods may selectively operate the internal combustion engine with one or more engine cylinders deactivated and may selectively flow coolant to one or more cylinders to improve passenger cabin heating in response to a request for passenger cabin heat.