EP1941149A1

EP1941149A1 - Circuit for supplying a supercharged engine with at least one fluid and method of supplying such an engine with at least one fluid

Info

Publication number: EP1941149A1
Application number: EP06830975A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Alain Ranini; Bruno Walter
Original assignee: IFP Energies Nouvelles IFPEN
Current assignee: IFP Energies Nouvelles IFPEN
Priority date: 2005-10-19
Filing date: 2006-10-18
Publication date: 2008-07-09
Also published as: US20090217660A1; US8316641B2; WO2007045768A1; FR2892155A1; FR2892155B1; JP5270354B2; JP2009512808A

Abstract

The invention relates to a circuit for supplying an internal combustion engine, particularly a diesel engine, with at least one fluid. The invention consists of: a circuit for supercharging air (20) at the intake of the engine, which is equipped with a supercharging pipe (36), a supercharging device (28) comprising a compression stage (26) and a radiator (38) for cooling the compressed air; and a circuit for recirculating the exhausts gases (22) at the intake of the engine, comprising an exhaust gas recirculation pipe (40) and an exhaust gas cooler (46). According to the invention, the supply circuit comprises a connecting line (50) which is used to connect the air supercharging circuit (20) and the exhaust gas recirculation circuit (22) upstream of the cooler (46).

Description

Feed circuit in at least one fluid of a supercharged engine and method for supplying at least one fluid such a motor.

The present invention relates to a supply circuit of at least one gaseous fluid of a supercharged internal combustion engine, in particular of diesel type, and to a method for supplying at least one gaseous fluid to such a motor.

In this type of engine, the feed circuit makes it possible to introduce into the cylinders of this engine, either a mixture of air and recirculated exhaust gas, or only air via a circuit a supercharger for the air and an exhaust gas recirculation circuit at the engine intake.

The supercharging circuit usually includes a line connecting an external air compressor to the engine intake and a compressed air cooling radiator, or charge air cooler (RAS), placed on the line between the intake of the engine and the compression device. Typically, the compression device is a compression stage of a turbocharger which is rotatably connected to a drive stage, such as a turbine placed in the exhaust gas stream and rotated under the effect of exhaust gas that sweeps it.

In a traditional exhaust gas recirculation circuit, the exhaust gases from the combustion of the fuel mixture are partially reinjected into the engine cylinders. This reinjection makes it possible, after the combustion of the carbureted mixture to which these exhaust gases have been added, to obtain burnt gases leaving the engine with a reduced quantity of pollutants, such as the oxides of nitrogen. This exhaust gas recirculation is achieved by connecting the engine exhaust to its intake by a conduit, called EGR conduit (English "Exhaust Gas Recirculation "). This duct carries a recirculated exhaust gas cooler that lowers the temperature of these exhaust gases before their introduction into the engine cylinders. This duct also carries a valve, called EGR valve, which controls the amount of exhaust gas introduced into the cylinders of the engine.

In the development of new vehicles, particular attention is paid to the definition of the front of the vehicle to reduce the risk of injury that could cause a frontal impact of the vehicle with a pedestrian. One of the solutions consists in limiting the height of this front face but the problem encountered then lies in the dimensioning of the devices arranged in or near this front face. This is the case of the supercharger air radiator which consists of a large exchange surface placed in this front face to be swept by the outside air and which is necessary to cool the large amount of compressed air from the compression stage.

Given this requirement related to this heat exchange, the current solutions consist in obtaining a compromise between the definition of the front of the vehicle and the front dimensioning of the charge air radiator. This therefore increases the risk of injury when the vehicle impacts with a pedestrian and a loss of performance of the charge air cooler.

Another problem related to a supercharged engine with exhaust gas recirculation comes from the clogging of the cooler. Indeed, the exhaust gases flowing through this cooler contain particles and unburned hydrocarbons (HC) which are deposited on the exchange walls of this cooler. These deposits penalize the thermal exchange of gases with the cooling fluid and can, especially in extreme cases of use with a high recirculation rate (of the order of 40 to 50%), clogging the gas flow paths exhaust. In this case, it is necessary to disassemble the chiller and clean it manually. This cleaning operation results in immobilization of the vehicle and a cost related to this cleaning which is not negligible.

The present invention proposes to overcome the drawbacks mentioned above by means of a power supply circuit which will make it possible to reduce the size of the charge air radiator and without reducing the heat exchange necessary for the cooling of the supercharging air. while allowing the cleaning of the cooler without disassembly and without seriously disturbing the operation of this engine.

For this purpose, the present invention relates to a supply circuit of at least one fluid of an internal combustion engine, in particular of the Diesel type, comprising an air intake circuit of the engine intake comprising a supercharging line. , a supercharging device with a compression stage and a radiator for cooling the compressed air, and an exhaust gas recirculation circuit at said engine intake comprising an exhaust gas recirculation duct and a exhaust gas cooler, characterized in that the supply circuit comprises a connecting line for connecting, upstream of the cooler, the air supercharging circuit and the exhaust gas recirculation circuit.

Advantageously, the pipe can connect the upstream of the radiator upstream of the cooler.

The pipe may also connect the downstream of the radiator upstream of the cooler.

Preferably, the pipe may carry a flow control valve. The air supercharging circuit may include a flow control valve.

The invention also relates to a method for supplying at least one fluid to an internal combustion engine, particularly of the Diesel type, comprising an air supercharging circuit with a device for compressing the outside air and a cooling radiator. compressed air and an exhaust gas recirculation circuit with an exhaust gas cooler, characterized in that for operating at medium and high engine loads it is part of the compressed air through the radiator and simultaneously pass the other part of this compressed air through the cooler.

The invention also relates to a method for supplying at least one fluid to an internal combustion engine, particularly of the Diesel type, comprising an air supercharging circuit with an external air compression device and a cooling radiator. compressed air and an exhaust gas recirculation circuit with an exhaust gas cooler, characterized in that it consists, for operation at high loads and medium loads of the engine, compressed air through the radiator and then through the cooler.

The other features and advantages of the invention will appear better on reading the description which follows, given solely by way of illustration and in no way limiting, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: FIG. 1 schematically shows a combustion engine with the supply circuit according to the invention and Figure 2 illustrates a combustion engine with a variant of the supply circuit of Figure 1.

In FIG. 1, the internal combustion engine 10, in particular of diesel type, comprises at least one cylinder 12 inside which the combustion of a fuel mixture, an intake manifold 14 and an exhaust manifold 16.

The intake manifold 14 is fed with at least one gaseous fluid (supercharged or non-supercharged air with or without recirculated exhaust gas) by a supply circuit 18 which comprises an air supercharging circuit 20 and a fuel circuit. exhaust gas recirculation 22.

The air supercharging circuit starts from an outside air inlet 24 and ends at the intake manifold 14. The outside air inlet 24 leads to a compression stage 26 for compressing this outside air. In the example shown in the figures, this compression stage is the compressor of a turbocharger 28 with a turbine 30 connected by a transmission shaft (not shown) to the compressor. The turbine is rotated by the exhaust gases resulting from the combustion of the fuel mixture in the cylinders and leaving the exhaust manifold 16. These gases then circulate in a pipe 32 which originates at this manifold and ends at the turbine . After passing through this turbine, these exhaust gases are discharged into the exhaust line through an outlet 34. The compressed air leaving the compressor 26 is directed by an air supercharging line 36 into the intake manifold 14 Conventionally, a compressed air cooling radiator 38, more commonly referred to as a charge air cooler (RAS), is placed on line 36 between the intake manifold 14 and the compressor 26. The positioning of the this radiator thus shares the supercharging air line 36 in an upstream air intake line 36a, between the compressor and the radiator, and a downstream pipe 36b, between this radiator and the intake manifold.

By the terms upstream and downstream, it is understood the constitutive parts of the circuit considered which are located before or after the element concerned and considering the direction of flow of the fluid or fluids as shown in the figures. The exhaust gas recirculation circuit 22 comprises an exhaust gas recirculation duct 40 (more commonly referred to as exhaust duct).

EGR) which originates at a bypass 42 of the exhaust gas duct 32 and terminates either in the intake manifold or at a point 44 of the downstream air intake duct 36b, as illustrated in FIG. Figure 1. This EGR duct carries a recirculated exhaust gas cooler 46 and a valve 48, called EGR valve, for controlling the amount of exhaust gas flowing in the EGR duct. This valve is placed on the portion of the EGR duct located between the exhaust manifold 16 and the cooler 46.

As best seen in Figure 1, the supply circuit also comprises a connecting line 50 between the air supercharging circuit and the exhaust gas recirculation circuit. More precisely, this connecting line makes it possible to connect a point 52 of the upstream air intake duct 36 a with a junction point 54 of the part of the duct 40 located upstream of the cooler 46 and downstream of the EGR valve 48.

This location of the connecting pipe thus makes it possible to operate the supercharging air radiator in parallel with the recirculated exhaust gas cooler to effect the cooling of the compressed air coming out of the compressor 26.

Preferably, the connecting pipe carries a flow control valve 56 for regulating the flow rate of the compressed air passing through the cooler 46. Also, the portion of the upstream pipe 36a situated between the junction point 52 and the radiator charge air carries a flow control valve 58 to control the passage of compressed air into the radiator 38.

In operation of the engine at half load or at full load, it is not necessary to carry out an exhaust gas recirculation at the intake of the engine, since the combustion of the fuel mixture in the cylinders 12 is such that the pollutants emitted in the exhaust meet the anti-pollution standards. In this case, the EGR valve 48 is in the closed position of the gas passage to the cooler and the flow control valves 56 and 58 are in the open position. In this configuration, the exhaust gases from the exhaust manifold 16 and flowing in the pipe 32 rotates the turbine 30 to be subsequently discharged through the outlet 34. This turbine rotates the compressor 26 so as to compress the pressure. outside air coming through the inlet 24. The compressed air leaving the compressor, which is at a high temperature due to compression, circulates, for a part, in the upstream pipe 36a and, for the other part, in the connecting line 50 as well as in the portion of the duct 40 between the point 54 and the inlet of the cooler. As a result, one part of the compressed air is cooled by the radiator 38 and the other part is cooled by the exhaust gas cooler 46. Then, the cooled compressed air leaving the radiator and that leaving the cooler is join at the junction point 44 to be directed into the intake manifold 14. From this manifold, the cooled compressed air is introduced into the cylinders 12 to be mixed with a fuel and achieve combustion of the fuel mixture.

Due to the additional cooling power (of the order of 5 to 10 KW) provided by the cooler 46 to lower the temperature of the compressed air, the possibility is offered to reduce the size of the radiator 38 while maintaining the performance of final exchange and the temperature of the compressed air in the collector which were previously obtained by conventional supply circuits. As a result, the span of the front of the vehicle can be reduced without penalizing the cooling of the charge air.

Advantageously, this configuration is used to systematically clean the exhaust gas cooler. As previously mentioned, the compressed air passing through this cooler is at a high temperature, of the order of 150 to 180 ° C. This temperature is high enough to evaporate the soluble fractions of the particles deposited on the exchange walls of the cooler so that they disintegrate. Then, under the effect of the high speed of the compressed air circulating in the cooler, these disintegrated particles are detached from the exchange walls and are driven by the cooled compressed air to the engine inlet where they are introduced into the cylinder to be burned during the combustion of the fuel mixture.

Even more advantageously, it can be envisaged to achieve this cleaning even more quickly and this by action on the flow control valves 56 and 58. Thus, these valves can be controlled in such a way that the valve 58 either temporarily in the intermediate closed position, or in the fully closed position, and the valve 56 is in the fully open position. As a result, the amount of air passing through the cooler will be higher which can only accelerate the cleaning of this cooler.

In the case of low engine load operation where a recirculated exhaust gas inlet is required, the valve 56 is in the closed position of the connecting pipe 50, the valve 58 is in the open position of the pipe 36a. and the EGR valve 48 is actuated in opening according to the combustion conditions of the desired fuel mixture in the cylinders 12.

During this operation, a part of the exhaust gas leaving the manifold 16 is conveyed by the conduit 40 to the point 44 having been cooled by the cooler 46. The air arriving at this point and having passed through the radiator 38 can be , or air at ambient pressure (in case of inaction of the compressor, especially in the idle phases of the engine), or air slightly compressed by the compressor. As a result, from this point a mixture of air and exhaust gas is sent to the intake manifold. Referring now to Figure 2 which shows a variant of Figure 1 and for this includes the same references for the elements common to both figures.

This variant differs from Figure 1 in that the connecting line 50 allows the cooler 46 to operate in series with the radiator 38 to ensure cooling of the compressed air during operation at medium and high loads of the engine.

The air supercharging circuit 20 of the supply circuit 18 of this variant therefore comprises an outside air inlet 24, an air compressor 26 forming part of a turbocharger 28, an air supercharging duct 36 and a charge air cooler 38 sharing the pipe 36 in an upstream pipe 36a and a downstream pipe 36b.

The exhaust gas recirculation circuit 22 comprises an exhaust gas recirculation duct 40, which starts from the bypass 42 of the exhaust gas duct 32 and ends in the intake manifold 14, a cooler recirculated exhaust gas 46 and an EGR valve 48.

As previously mentioned in connection with FIG. 1, the supply circuit of this variant also comprises a connection line 50 between the air supercharging circuit and the exhaust gas recirculation circuit.

As can be seen more clearly in FIG. 2, this connecting pipe makes it possible to connect the downstream air intake pipe 36b with the junction point 54 of the part of the duct 40 situated upstream of the cooler 46 and downstream of the EGR valve 48. As already explained in connection with FIG. 1, during operation of the engine at half load or at full load, the EGR valve 48 is in the closed position of the passage of the gases towards the cooler 46. The compressor 26 flows in the upstream pipe 36a and the radiator 38 to exit in the downstream pipe 36b with a temperature lower than that of the compressor outlet. The compressed air thus cooled is then directed by the connecting line 50 to the junction point 54 to pass through the cooler 46 and undergo another lowering temperature. At the outlet of the cooler, the compressed air, which has undergone a kind of "supercooling" by passing through the cooler 46, is directed towards the intake manifold 14 from which this compressed air is introduced into the cylinders 12 for be mixed with a fuel and burn the fuel mixture.

Thus, thanks to this "super-cooling", it is possible to reduce the size of the radiator 38 while maintaining the thermal performance necessary to lower the temperature of the compressed air to a level required for admission into the cylinders 12.

Similarly, it will be possible to perform a cleaning of the cooler 46 without having to disassemble it and that by the combined action of the temperature of the compressed air and its speed which will be sufficient radiator output to evaporate the soluble fractions of the particles and take them off the exchange walls.

In operation at low engine load, the EGR valve 48 is actuated in opening to allow a portion of the exhaust gas to circulate to the intake manifold 14 after having passed through the cooler 46. At the same time, the air cooled by passing through the radiator 38 is mixed at point 54 with the hot exhaust gases. The air / gas mixture is then cooled by the cooler 46 to reach the desired temperature in the intake manifold 14.

Of course and as is known to those skilled in the art, both the radiator 38 and the cooler 46 are provided with a short-circuit respectively 60 and 62 comprising a winnowing means 64 and 66 and a control conduct. Contourement 68 and 70 of the exchanger 38, 46 to which it is applied. These short circuits are generally used during the cold start of the engine and therefore have no interdependence with the operation at mid-loads or heavy loads of the engine.

The present invention is not limited to the embodiments described but encompasses any equivalent and variant.

In particular, it can be envisaged that the feed circuit described above is applied to a gasoline type internal combustion engine.

Claims

1) Supply circuit in at least one fluid of an internal combustion engine, in particular of Diesel type, comprising an air supercharging circuit (20) at the intake of the engine comprising a supercharging line (36), a supercharging device (28) with a compression stage (26) and a cooling radiator (38) of the compressed air, and an exhaust gas recirculation circuit (22) at said engine intake comprising an exhaust gas recirculation duct (40) and an exhaust gas cooler (46), characterized in that the supply circuit comprises a connecting duct (50) for connection upstream of the chiller ( 46), the air supercharging circuit (20) and the exhaust gas recirculation circuit (22).

2) supply circuit in at least one fluid according to claim 1, characterized in that the connecting pipe (50) connects the upstream of the radiator (38) upstream of the cooler (46).

3) supply circuit in at least one fluid according to claim 1, characterized in that the connecting pipe (50) connects the downstream of the radiator (38) upstream of the cooler (46).

4) Supply circuit in at least one fluid according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the connecting pipe (50) carries a flow control valve (56).

5) A supply circuit in at least one fluid according to claim 1, characterized in that the air supercharging circuit (20) comprises a flow control valve (58).

6) Method for supplying at least one fluid to an internal combustion engine, in particular of diesel type, comprising a supercharging circuit air compressor (20) with a compressor (26) for the outside air and a cooling radiator (38) for the compressed air and an exhaust gas recirculation circuit (22) with a cooler exhaust system (46), characterized in that for operation at medium and high engine loads, a portion of the compressed air is passed through the radiator (38) and simultaneously passing the other portion of this compressed air through the cooler (46).

7) Method for supplying at least one fluid to an internal combustion engine, particularly of diesel type, comprising an air supercharging circuit (20) with a device for compressing (26) the outside air and a radiator for cooling (38) compressed air and an exhaust gas recirculation circuit (22) with an exhaust gas cooler (46), characterized in that it consists, for the operation at half loads and at high engine loads, passing the compressed air through the radiator (38) and then passing it through the cooler (46).