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In the context of modern engine control, one important variable is the individual Air Fuel Ratio (AFR) which is a good representation of the produced torque. It results from various inputs such as injected quantities, boost pressure, and the exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) rate. Further, for forthcoming HCCI engines and regeneration filters (Particulate filters, DeNOx), even slight AFR unbalance between the cylinders can have dramatic consequences and induce important noise, possible stall and higher emissions. Classically, in Spark Ignition engine, overall AFR is directly controlled with the injection system. In this approach, all cylinders share the same closed-loop input signal based on the single λ-sensor (normalized Fuel-Air Ratio measurement, it can be rewritten with AFR as they have the same injection set-point.

The short time available for injection and mixing in high-speed engines requires an accurate modeling of the fuel related processes to obtain a valuable in-cylinder charge description, and then a good combustion performance prediction. An advanced version of the KMB code of IFP has been used to compute a racing engine. It includes a fitted on experiments spray model, a comprehensive wall-film model, the AKTIM ignition and ECFM combustion models. A major difficulty was the necessity to compute numerous cycles before reaching a cycle-independent solution. A procedure has been defined to minimize calculation time. Another difficulty was the high concentration of liquid in some zones, which requested a careful meshing. Effects such as the influence of the strong acoustic waves on the spray dynamic, the wall wetting effects on the engine time response, injector position on fuel distribution in the cylinder, charge homogeneity on the combustion process have been investigated.

Torque balancing for diesel engines is important to eliminate generated vibrations and to correct injected quantity disparities between cylinders. The vibration phenomenon is important at low engine speed and at idling. To estimate torque production from each cylinders, the instantaneous engine speed from the crankshaft is used. Currently, an engine speed measurement every 45° crank angle is sufficient to estimate torque balance and to correct it in an adaptive manner by controlling the mass injected into each cylinder. The contribution of this article is to propose a new approach of estimation of the indicated torque of a DI engine based on a nonstationary linear model of the system. On this model, we design a linear observer to estimate the indicated torque produced by each cylinder. In order to test it, this model has been implemented on a HiL platform and tested on simulation and with experimental data.

A methodology has been developed to determine, for every cycle on which significant knock is detected, the area in which self-ignition occurs. This methodology is based on the exploitation by a dedicated algorithm of a minimum of 4 simultaneous combustion chamber pressure measurements. The algorithm has been first tested on the results of engine knocking simulation, then applied with success on a single-cylinder engine equipped with classical pressure transducers and with an instrumented cylinder head gasket developed for this application. The results obtained with these two kinds of transducers on several engine configurations and tunings are similar. If the timing and intensity of knock events depend on all engine parameters, its location is especially sensitive to such design parameters as fluid motion into the combustion chamber and spark plug position.

Due to increasingly stringent regulations, reduction of pollutant emissions and consumption are currently two major goals of the car industry. One way to reach these objectives is to enhance the management of the engine in order to optimize the whole combustion process. This requires the development of complex control strategies for the air and the fuel paths, and for the combustion process. In this context, engine 0D modelling emerges as a pertinent tool for investigating and validating such strategies. Indeed, it represents a useful complement to test bench campaigns, on the condition that these 0D models are accurate enough and manage to run quite fast, eventually in real time. This paper presents the different steps of the design of a high frequency 0D simulator of a downsized turbocharged Port Fuel Injector (PFI) engine, compatible with real time constraints.

The influence of the type of fuel and the feeding means to a DOC, in order to regenerate a DPF, was investigated. Diesel fuel in cylinder late post-injection was compared to the injection in the exhaust line, through an exhaust port injector, of diesel fuel, B10 (diesel fuel containing 10% of esters) and gasoline. Diesel fuel exhaust injection resulted in a deteriorated conversion efficiency, while the incorporation of esters to the diesel fuel was demonstrated to have no influence. Gasoline exhaust injection led to less HC slip than diesel fuels. Temperature dynamics resulting from injection steps showed taught that the shorter the hydrocarbons (within the tested fuels), the slower the response. These differences can be caught by simple models, leading to interesting opportunities for the model-based control of the DPF inlet temperature during active regenerations.

In order to determine the area where knock occurs in a single cylinder engine, an acoustic methodology needs a minimum of four simultaneous pressure measurements in the combustion chamber. A specific cylinder head gasket integrating 12 pressure sensors has been developed and tested. The gasket is based on a bonded multilayer technology including high temperature piezoelectric cells, metallic and insulating sheets and printed circuit films. The total thickness is close to 1.25 mm (1/20 inch) and allows a straight forward substitution of the original gasket without modification. The sensors have large frequency bandwidth (typically 3-100 kHz) and withstand severe conditions (heat, combustion, pressure, vibrations, static pre-stress, electromagnetic fields and shocks). Signal processing adaptation of the dedicated exploitation software has brought good success for the single cylinder prototype, which remains operational after 100 hours of extreme conditions running (high knock).

In the context of increasingly stringent pollution norms, reduced engine emissions are a great challenge for compressed ignition engines. After-treatment solutions are expensive and very complex to implement, while the NOx/PM trade-off is difficult to optimise for conventional Diesel engines. Therefore, in-cylinder pollutant production limitation by the HPC combustion mode (Highly Premixed Combustion) - including Homogeneous Charge Compression Ignition (HCCI) - represents one of the most promising ways for new generation of CI engine. For this combustion technology, control based on torque estimation is crucial: the objectives are to accurately control the cylinder-individual fuel injected mass and to adapt the fuel injection parameters to the in-cylinder conditions (fresh air and burned gas masses and temperature).

For studying simultaneously and early in the development process the effects of engine design parameters and of control strategies on HC emissions, a methodology has been set up to reproduce on a gasoline single-cylinder engine the beginning of MVEG cycle. This methodology uses different fuels and analysis tools to assess the HC sources. Oil and water are heated to follow the thermal behavior of a multi cylinder engine. A fast prototyping system is used to control the engine. Special attention has been paid to take into account the acoustic effect on the air feeding. The main tendencies observed in stabilized conditions are similar to transient test conditions with GDI engine. Wall wetting appears as the main source of HC emission in case of direct injection. Transient effects are especially sensitive during cold conditions.