DETAILED ACTION
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim(s) 1-22 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102a1 & 102a2 as being clearly anticipated by Hampson et al. (US 2020/0318570 A1).
Hampson ‘570 discloses the invention as follows:
1. An apparatus (ECU 102; fig. 1-2; par. 0016-0017, 0020-0021) for managing ignition in a chamber within an in-cylinder injector (Note, although 124 is shown to be a port-type injector, par. 0028 explicitly states that the fuel injector 124 can be an in-cylinder/direct injector. Thus, the claimed “chamber” within the in-cylinder/direct injector is implicit taught) that introduces a fuel directly into a combustion chamber 160 of an internal combustion engine 100, the chamber including at least one injection hole (implicitly and conventionally taught in direct injectors) and in fluid communication with the combustion chamber 160 through the at least one injection hole, the apparatus 102 comprising a controller (ECU 102) operatively connected with the in-cylinder injector 124 and programmed to:
selectively actuate the in-cylinder injector 124 (again; see par. 0028 for disclosure of 124 being a direct injector, which is not explicitly shown in fig. 1) to inject the fuel directly into the combustion chamber 160;
determine whether autoignition is possible within the chamber as a function of engine operating parameters (e.g., [0021] The controller/ECU can further identify the number and location of heat release peaks in the heat release rate, and an inflection point in the heat release rate that represents the auto-ignition of end-gas, which is a portion of the air/fuel charge in the cylinder that is auto-ignited before being ignited by contact with a propagating flame front of a flame kernel generated by spark ignition (or other primary ignition source). The controller/ECU can then adjust parameters of the combustion to control the timing of the inflection point, the timing and duration of the peak or peaks in the heat release rate due to auto-ignition, or other aspects of the heat release; and [0023] In some instances, an engine system can include an embedded real-time combustion diagnostics and control (RT-CDC) processor that incorporates, is connected to (e.g., as a companion controller), or integrated with the ECU and communicates with high-frequency in-cylinder sensors. The RT-CDC uses in-cylinder measurements (e.g., pressure, temperature, or other) to determine combustion metrics, and can output combustion parameters from a combustion cycle of the engine.); and
perform a mitigation strategy to prevent autoignition within the chamber of the in-cylinder injector when autoignition is possible (e.g., [0023]… The combustion parameters can include a heat release (including total and rate), which can be used to determine characteristics of auto-ignition of portions of an air/fuel charge that are not combusted by the propagating flame front of an ignitor produced flame kernel and to provide an adjustment to a spark timing and/or exhaust gas supply to the cylinder and/or fuel addition in a subsequent combustion phase to control (and ideally optimize) auto-ignition events in the cylinder.).
2. The apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the controller 102 is further programmed to employ a standard engine map when autoignition is not possible (e.g., [0023]…Basic engine control (such as control of fuel, ignition, and/or EGR) is performed either by the ECU using input from an oxygen sensor in the exhaust and either a MAF or a MAP with throttle position sensor, and/or basic engine control is performed using combustion metrics from the RT-CDC.), and to employ a modified engine map when autoignition is possible (e.g., [0023]… The control that is performed by this algorithm (e.g., adjusting the ignition timing, EGR, and/or fuel enrichment) adjusts on top of that basic engine control. The amount of adjustment (e.g., to ignition timing, EGR, and/or fuel enrichment) is also bound by the basic engine control. For example, the EGR can be adjusted to control the auto-ignition, but only to the extent the engine maintains a NOx production below a specified amount.).
3. The apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the engine operating parameters are one or more of geometric compression ratio, effective compression ratio, fuel type, fuel composition, intake charge temperature, inlet manifold pressure, inlet manifold temperature, exhaust gas recirculation concentration, engine speed, and engine load (e.g., [0020] In some instances, high-frequency in-cylinder sensors measure pressure, temperature, and other parameters of the engine cylinder, and are processed by a companion controller or an engine control unit (ECU). The controller/ECU includes an embedded processor with, in certain instances, the capability to process high-speed cylinder data with resolution as fine as 0.25 degrees crank and capable of producing a comprehensive suite of diagnostics for monitoring combustion, as well as filtering and averaging the combustion diagnostics, in real-time, i.e., concurrent with the engine operation and current enough for use in a control loop for controlling the engine. In some instances, the “real-time” operation is such that the controller/ECU can process the in-cylinder sensor data rapidly enough to control the immediately following combustion cycle of the same cylinder. The real-time combustion metrics calculated by the controller/ECU can include location, in crank angle or time, of pressure and/or temperature within one or more of the cylinders. In some examples, the controller/ECU can calculate an adiabatic heat release rate of a combustion phase in an engine cylinder prior to a next combustion cycle in the engine cylinder. The adiabatic heat release rate can be calculated on a cylinder-by-cylinder basis, along with the locations in crank angle or time of 10%, 50%, 90%, or other percent of the per-cycle mass fraction burned during combustion (CA10, CA50 (also known as center of combustion (CoC), CA90, and CAX, respectively), the duration of the per-cycle combustion, as well as other combustion diagnostic metrics derived from pressure signals and/or temperature signals, such as IMEP (indicated mean effective pressure), polytropic coefficients (K, indicative of compression quality of the cylinder), and/or combustion stability (COV of IMEP).). See also par. 0035-0036.
4. The apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein in performing the mitigation strategy the controller is programmed to:
determine a critical crank angle (e.g., specified crank angle or specified range of crank angles; see fig. 3-5; par. 0004-0005, 0019, 0035-0036, 0047) during a compression stroke when autoignition becomes possible in the chamber;
determine a mitigation quantity of the fuel required to be injected before the critical crank angle to prevent autoignition in the chamber (see par. 0005-0006, 0017, 0019, 0028, 0046, 0048 & 0059-0060) ; and
actuate the in-cylinder injector to perform a mitigation injection of the mitigation quantity of the fuel before the critical crank angle is reached by a piston traveling in the combustion chamber during the compression stroke (see also fig. 3-5).
5. The apparatus as claimed in claim 4, wherein the mitigation quantity of the fuel prevents autoignition in the chamber at least until a main injection of the fuel occurs later during the compression stroke (see par. 0005-0006, 0017, 0019, 0028, 0046, 0048 & 0059-0060).
6. The apparatus as claimed in 1, wherein in performing the mitigation strategy the controller is programmed to:
determine a critical compression ratio (e.g., compression ratio; see par. 0019 & 0039) that creates a pressure and temperature environment in the chamber suitable for autoignition; and
adjust an effective compression ratio (par. 0019 & 0039) such that the effective compression ratio is less than the critical compression ratio.
7. The apparatus as claimed in claim 6, wherein the critical compression ratio is calculated as a function of at least one engine operating parameter selected from the group consisting of fuel type, fuel composition, intake charge temperature, inlet manifold pressure, inlet manifold temperature, exhaust gas recirculation concentration, engine speed, and engine load (e.g., [0021] The controller/ECU can further identify the number and location of heat release peaks in the heat release rate, and an inflection point in the heat release rate that represents the auto-ignition of end-gas, which is a portion of the air/fuel charge in the cylinder that is auto-ignited before being ignited by contact with a propagating flame front of a flame kernel generated by spark ignition (or other primary ignition source). The controller/ECU can then adjust parameters of the combustion to control the timing of the inflection point, the timing and duration of the peak or peaks in the heat release rate due to auto-ignition, or other aspects of the heat release. The controlled parameters include at least one of the timing of the spark (or other ignition source) in the cylinder, an amount of exhaust gas supplied to the cylinder, a temperature of the exhaust gas supplied to the cylinder, an amount of an additional fuel supplied to the cylinder, and/or a temperature of the intake charge (for example, via CAC bypass). Other parameters can also be adjusted to control combustion in the cylinder. The adjusted timing of the auto-ignition events can be selected such that the auto-ignition of the end gas is benign (i.e., does not cause engine knock or substantial engine knock) and, in certain instances, even beneficially contributes to combustion by phasing the peak of the auto-ignition heat release rate to coincide or substantially coincide with the heat release rate peak of the spark ignited combustion.).
8. The apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein in performing the mitigation strategy the controller is programmed to increase a coolant flow through a charge-air-cooler to decrease an inlet manifold temperature or an intake charge temperature at the beginning of a compression stroke (see disclosure above for claim 7).
9. The apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the controller 102 is further programmed to perform a second mitigation strategy when autoignition of the fuel is not possible within the combustion chamber. Note, this “second mitigation strategy” can be interpreted as the normal engine operation whenever there’s no identification of an auto-ignition event of the air/fuel charge, as can be seen in the flowcharts in Fig. 7 & 8, par. 0097-0098.
10. The apparatus as claimed in claim 9, wherein in performing the second mitigation strategy the controller is programmed to: a critical compression ratio that creates a pressure and temperature environment in the combustion chamber suitable for autoignition; and adjust an effective compression ratio such that the effective compression ratio is greater than or equal to the critical compression ratio. (Again, this programming of the “second mitigation strategy” would read on the controller of Hampson’s operating the engine system wherein the calculation of the heat release of combustion in the cylinder based on the measure parameters reveals that an auto-ignition event of the air/fuel charge has not been identified; thus, resulting in the controller controlling the engine system to operate without modifying the controls of the ignition timing, characteristics of the exhaust gas, and/or the amount of an additional fuel provided to the air/fuel charge. As such, the “critical compression ratio” and the “effective compression ratio” would be effectively controlled as claimed in such a way that the engine would be operating at its most efficient manner as programmed by the controller).
11. The apparatus as claimed in claim 9, wherein in performing the second mitigation strategy the controller is programmed to decrease a coolant flow through a charge-air-cooler to increase an inlet manifold temperature or an intake charge temperature at the beginning of a compression stroke. (Again, see the disclosures above for claims 7 & 8. Note, it is known in the art wherein in order to effectively control both the critical compression and the effective compression ratio of the engine, various parameters of the engine operation would be carefully controlled in a such a way that the engine operate at its most efficient manner. Hampson explicitly teaches that such parameters include ignition timing, characteristics of exhaust gas, and/or amount of additional fuel injected into the combustion chamber by the direct injectors 124. Additionally, Hampson further explicitly discloses in par. 0099 that the engine’s controller takes into account the control of the intake manifold temperature (i.e., MAT) via charge air cooler bypass (e.g., intercooler / CAC), or a combination of these.).
With regards to claim(s) 12-22, the claim(s) is/are commensurate in scope with claim(s) 1-11, and is/are rejected for the same reasons as set forth above.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
The various cited prior arts teach similar method of controlling in-cylinder injection system wherein an auto-ignition event is determined based on pre-ignition events, and wherein the engine’s controller perform some sort of prevention / mitigation methods to prevent such auto-ignition from taking place in the next combustion event.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to HUNG Q NGUYEN whose telephone number is (571)270-5424. The examiner can normally be reached Mon-Fri: 7am-pm (CT).
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HUNG Q. NGUYEN
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 3747
/HUNG Q NGUYEN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3747