Internal combustion engines still have a potential for substantial improvements, particularly with regard to fuel efficiency and environmental compatibility. These goals can be achieved with help of control systems. Modeling and Control of Internal Combustion Engines (ICE) addresses these issues by offering an introduction to cost-effective model-based control system design for ICE. The primary emphasis is put on the ICE and its auxiliary devices. Mathematical models for these processes are developed in the text and selected feedforward and feedback control problems are discussed. The appendix contains a summary of the most important controller analysis and design methods, and a case study that analyzes a simplified idle-speed control problem. The book is written for students interested in the design of classical and novel ICE control systems.

Progressive reductions in vehicle emission requirements have forced the automotive industry to invest in research and development of alternative control strategies. Continual control action exerted by a dedicated electronic control unit ensures that best performance in terms of pollutant emissions and power density is married with driveability and diagnostics. Gasoline direct injection (GDI) engine technology is a way to attain these goals. This brief describes the functioning of a GDI engine equipped with a common rail (CR) system, and the devices necessary to run test-bench experiments in detail. The text should prove instructive to researchers in engine control and students are recommended to this brief as their first approach to this technology. Later chapters of the brief relate an innovative strategy designed to assist with the engine management system; injection pressure regulation for fuel pressure stabilization in the CR fuel line is proposed and validated by experiment. The resulting control scheme is composed of a feedback integral action and a static model-based feed-forward action, the gains of which are scheduled as a function of fundamental plant parameters. The tuning of closed-loop performance is supported by an analysis of the phase-margin and the sensitivity function. Experimental results confirm the effectiveness of the control algorithm in regulating the mean-value rail pressure independently from engine working conditions (engine speed and time of injection) with limited design effort.

The volume includes selected and reviewed papers from the 3rd Conference on Ignition Systems for Gasoline Engines in Berlin in November 2016. Experts from industry and universities discuss in their papers the challenges to ignition systems in providing reliable, precise ignition in the light of a wide spread in mixture quality, high exhaust gas recirculation rates and high cylinder pressures. Classic spark plug ignition as well as alternative ignition systems are assessed, the ignition system being one of the key technologies to further optimizing the gasoline engine.

The combustion of fossil fuels remains a key technology for the foreseeable future. It is therefore important that we understand the mechanisms of combustion and, in particular, the role of turbulence within this process. Combustion always takes place within a turbulent flow field for two reasons: turbulence increases the mixing process and enhances combustion, but at the same time combustion releases heat which generates flow instability through buoyancy, thus enhancing the transition to turbulence. The four chapters of this book present a thorough introduction to the field of turbulent combustion. After an overview of modeling approaches, the three remaining chapters consider the three distinct cases of premixed, non-premixed, and partially premixed combustion, respectively. This book will be of value to researchers and students of engineering and applied mathematics by demonstrating the current theories of turbulent combustion within a unified presentation of the field.

Phenomenology of Diesel Combustion and Modeling Diesel is the most efficient combustion engine today and it plays an important role in transport of goods and passengers on land and on high seas. The emissions must be controlled as stipulated by the society without sacrificing the legendary fuel economy of the diesel engines. These important drivers caused innovations in diesel engineering like re-entrant combustion chambers in the piston, lower swirl support and high pressure injection, in turn reducing the ignition delay and hence the nitric oxides. The limits on emissions are being continually reduced. The- fore, the required accuracy of the models to predict the emissions and efficiency of the engines is high. The phenomenological combustion models based on physical and chemical description of the processes in the engine are practical to describe diesel engine combustion and to carry out parametric studies. This is because the injection process, which can be relatively well predicted, has the dominant effect on mixture formation and subsequent course of combustion. The need for improving these models by incorporating new developments in engine designs is explained in Chapter 2. With “model based control programs” used in the Electronic Control Units of the engines, phenomenological models are assuming more importance now because the detailed CFD based models are too slow to be handled by the Electronic Control Units. Experimental work is necessary to develop the basic understanding of the pr- esses.

This book focuses on clean transport and mobility essential to the modern world. It discusses internal combustion engines (ICEs) and alternatives like battery electric vehicles (BEVs) which are growing fast. Alternatives to ICEs start from a very low base and face formidable environmental, material availability, and economic challenges to unlimited and rapid growth. Hence ICEs will continue to be the main power source for transport for decades to come and have to be continuously improved to improve transport sustainability. The book highlights the need to assess proposed changes in the existing transport system on a life cycle basis. The volume includes chapters discussing the challenges faced by ICEs as well as chapters on novel fuels and fuel/ engine interactions which help in this quest to improve the efficiency of ICE and reduce exhaust pollutants. This book will be of interest to those in academia and industry alike.