Premium
Inherent limitations and control design for camless engine idle speed dynamics
Author(s) -
Wang Yan,
Stefanopoulou Anna,
Smith Roy
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
international journal of robust and nonlinear control
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.361
H-Index - 106
eISSN - 1099-1239
pISSN - 1049-8923
DOI - 10.1002/rnc.643
Subject(s) - actuator , control theory (sociology) , nonlinear system , spark (programming language) , control engineering , process (computing) , idle , computer science , system dynamics , electronic speed control , engineering , control (management) , physics , artificial intelligence , operating system , quantum mechanics , programming language , electrical engineering
The idle speed control problem of a spark‐ignited engine equipped with a camless valvetrain is considered. The camless valvetrain allows control of the individual intake and exhaust valves of each cylinder and can be used to achieve unthrottled operation, and consequently, optimize the engine performance. We formulate the speed control problem for this engine and show that it exhibits unstable open‐loop behaviour with a significant delay in the feedback loop. The instability is intrinsic to the unthrottled operation and specific to the camless actuation used to achieve the unthrottled operation. The delay is caused by the discrete combustion process and the sensor/computer/actuator interface. We demonstrate the inherent system limitations associated with the unstable dynamics and the delay and provide insight on the structural (plant) design that can alleviate these limitations. Finally, stabilizing controllers using classical and modern robust design techniques are presented and tested on a nonlinear simulation model. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.