Modelling for Fuel Optimal Control of a Variable Compression Engine

Variable compression engines are a mean to meet the demand on lower fuel consumption. A high compression ratio results in high engine efficiency, but also increases the knock tendency. On conventional engines with fixed compression ratio, knock is avoided by retarding the ignition angle. The variable compression engine offers an extra dimension in knock control, since both ignition angle and compression ratio can be adjusted. The central question is thus for what combination of compression ratio and ignition angle the maximum efficiency is achieved, considering the set of compression ratios and ignition angles that give a sufficiently low knock intensity. Four knock detection methods are proposed, compared and evaluated with respect to robustness for noise and choices of parameter values. Three of the knock detectors are categorised as on-line, and are designed for giving feedback about knock occurrence to the engine control unit. The methods can determine both whether or not knock is present and the crank angle at knock onset. A study of the relationship between knock oscillation properties and knockonset is performed. It is concluded that the logarithm of the normalised knock energy depends almost linearly on the rate of knock occurrence. A new formulation of multi-zone engine models is presented. The formulation makes it easy to increase or decrease the number of zones during the simulation. One of many possible applications is the investigation of engine efficiency. An analysis of experimental data shows how the engine efficiency changes with compression ratio and ignition angle. An engine torque model is developed and validated, from which the optimal choice of compression ratio and ignition angle can be calculated with high accuracy.