CONTROL DEVICE FOR INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINE

In a diesel engine that performs pilot injection and main injection, a target spray temperature is set in association with the end of the physical ignition delay period of fuel injected in main injection, and a pilot injection amount and a pilot injection time are controlled such that a reference spray temperature, which is the actual spray temperature at the end of the physical ignition delay period, matches the target spray temperature. The end of the physical ignition delay period of fuel is obtained as a time at which an in-spray equivalence ratio is decreased to an in-spray combustible equivalence ratio (0.7). The reference spray temperature is obtained by subtracting the amount of heat obtained based on an initial spray temperature from the in-cylinder temperature at the end of the physical ignition delay period of fuel.