Determining the amount of energy released in a cylinder of an internal combustion engine by evaluating tooth timings of a sensor disc that is connected to a crankshaft

• Main Authors: ESER GERHARD, HEINITZ DIRK
• Format: Patent
• Language: English
• Published: 06.05.2015
• Subjects: BLASTING; COMBUSTION ENGINES; CONTROLLING COMBUSTION ENGINES; HEATING; HOT-GAS OR COMBUSTION-PRODUCT ENGINE PLANTS; LIGHTING; MEASURING; MECHANICAL ENGINEERING; PHYSICS; TESTING; TESTING STATIC OR DYNAMIC BALANCE OF MACHINES ORSTRUCTURES; TESTING STRUCTURES OR APPARATUS NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR; WEAPONS

The invention relates to a method and a device (100) for determining the amount of energy released in the working cycle of a cylinder of an internal combustion engine. The method comprises the steps of: (a) recording a time curve of the rotational speed of the crankshaft of the internal combustion engine using tooth timings that each represent a length of time within which two adjacent teeth of a sensor disc, which is connected to the crankshaft and has an alternating arrangement of teeth and tooth gaps along its circumference, pass a reference position, (b) assigning each of the tooth timings to a working cycle of a selected cylinder of the internal combustion engine, (c) determining a cylinder-individual average value from the tooth timings assigned to the working cycle of the selected cylinder, (d) determining cylinder-individual tooth timing deviations from the determined cylinder-individual average value, for the tooth timings assigned to each working cycle of the selected cylinder, (e) determining a cylinder-individual characteristic tooth timing by determining the geometric sum of the determined cylinder-individual tooth timing deviations, and (f) specifying the amount of energy released in the working cycle of the selected cylinder of the internal combustion engine as a function of the cylinder-individual characteristic tooth timing that was determined, the amount of energy released being indirectly proportional to said determined cylinder-individual characteristic tooth timing.