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This paper describes a diesel engine lean NOx trap (LNT) regeneration air to fuel ratio (AFR) control system using a nonlinear model predictive control (NMPC) technique for simultaneous regeneration fuel penalty and overall tailpipe-out NOx reductions. A physics-based and experimentally validated nonlinear LNT dynamic model was employed to construct the NMPC control algorithm, which dictates the AFR value during regenerations. Different choices of NMPC cost function were examined in terms of the impact on fuel penalty and total tailpipe NOx slip amount. The cost function to achieve the best tradeoff between fuel penalty and tailpipe-out NOx was selected based on physical insights into the LNT system NOx and oxygen storage dynamics. The NMPC regeneration AFR control system was evaluated on a vehicle simulator cX-Emissions1 with a 1.9L diesel engine model through the FTP75 driving cycle.

This paper describes an in-cylinder lean-rich combustion (no-post-injection for rich) switching control approach for modern diesel engines equipped with exhaust-treatment systems. No-post-injection rich combustion is desirable for regeneration of engine exhaust-treatment systems thanks to its less fuel penalty compared with regeneration approaches using post-injections and / or in-exhaust injections. However, for vehicle applications, it is desirable to have driver-transparent exhaust-treatment system regenerations, which challenge the in-cylinder rich-lean combustion transitions. In this paper, a nonlinear in-cylinder condition control system combined with in-cylinder condition guided fueling control functions were developed to achieve smooth in-cylinder lean-rich switching control at both steady-state and transient operation. The performance of the control system is evaluated on a modern light-duty diesel engine (G9T600).

A new diesel engine system adopting alternative combustion with rich and near rich combustion, and an airflow-dominant control system for precise combustion control was used with a 4-way catalyst system with LNT (lean NOx trap) to achieve Tier II Bin 5 on a 2.2L TDI diesel engine. The study included catalyst temperature control, NOx regeneration, desulfation, and PM oxidation with and without post injection. Using a mass-produced lean burn gasoline LNT with 60,000 mile equivalent aging, compliance to Tier II Bin 5 emissions was confirmed for the US06 and FTP75 test cycles with low NVH, minor fuel penalty and smooth transient operation.

An airflow-dominant control system was developed to provide precise engine and exhaust treatment control with low air fuel ratio alternative combustion. The main elements of the control logic include a real-time state observer for in-cylinder oxygen mass estimation, a simplified packaging scheme for all air-handling and fueling parameters, a finite state machine for control mode switching, combustion control models to maintain robust alternative combustion during transients, and smooth rich/lean switching during lean NOx trap (LNT) regeneration without post injection. The control logic was evaluated on a passenger car equipped with a 4-way catalyst system with LNT and was instrumental in achieving US Tier II Bin 5 emission targets with good drivability and low NVH.

This paper describes a hybrid robust nonlinear control approach for modern diesel engines running low temperature combustion and conventional diesel combustion modes. Using alternative combustion modes has become a promising approach to reduce engine emissions. However, due to very different in-cylinder conditions and fueling parameters for different combustion modes, control of engines operating multiple combustion modes is very challenging. It becomes difficult for conventional calibration / mapping based approaches to produce satisfactory results in terms of engine torque responses and emissions. Advanced control techniques are then demanded to accomplish the tasks. An innovative hybrid control system is designed to track different key engine operating variables at different combustion modes as well as avoid singularity which is inherent for turbocharged diesel engines running multiple combustion modes.

This paper investigates the effect of real-time control system computational delay on the performance of a hybrid adaptive cruise control (ACC) system during braking/coasting scenarios. A hierarchical hybrid ACC system with a finite state machine (FSM) at the high-rank and a nonlinear sliding mode controller (SMC) at the low-rank is designed based on a vehicle dynamics model with a brake-by-wire platform. From simulations, parametric studies are used to evaluate the effect of the bounded random computational delay on the system performance in terms of tracking errors and control effort. The effect of the computational delay location within the control system hierarchy is also evaluated. The system performance generally becomes worse as the upper boundary of the computational delay increases while the effect of the computational delay located at the high-rank controller is more pronounced.