Implementing System Simulation to Drive a more Efficient Controls Development Process 2013-01-0420

A modernization of tools and processes is vital to develop more innovative products that will integrate complex technologies and comply with ever stricter standards. The upcoming Euro 6 and Euro 7, the European emission standards that define acceptable exhaust emissions limits for new vehicles have increased the workload of engine design and control design engineers.

They now have to integrate complex engine actuation and control systems, required to optimize engine performance, while keeping emissions at the lowest level possible. The growing number of systems driven by controls, as well as the multiple interactions between them, makes the engineering tasks more complex as engineers need to take a higher number of degrees of freedom into account. This has a direct impact on costs and times. In a quest of rationalization, the deployment of system simulation for plant modeling permits substantial gains in process efficiency all over the development process. Using virtual engines and vehicles significantly reduces the number of prototypes and the size of the testing programs. Moreover, the application of physical plant models for validation and calibration also leads to a faster development and a higher level of reliability.

In this context, the paper presents how the LMS Imagine.Lab AMESim® simulation platform can be effectively applied as a supporting tool over the whole engine control development cycle. Based on RENAULT's experiences, it illustrates the benefits of the software deployment for the set-up of physical plant models.