EPSRC logo

Details of Grant 

EPSRC Reference: EP/J00930X/1
Title: New Control Methodology for the Next Generation of Engine Management Systems
Principal Investigator: Xu, Professor H
Other Investigators:
Yao, Professor X
Researcher Co-Investigators:
Project Partners:
Jaguar Land Rover Limited Oxsensis1 SAIC Motor UK Technical Centre Ltd
Shell TATA Motors Engineering Technical Centre
Department: Mechanical Engineering
Organisation: University of Birmingham
Scheme: Standard Research
Starts: 25 March 2013 Ends: 24 September 2016 Value (£): 563,195
EPSRC Research Topic Classifications:
Control Engineering Electric Motor & Drive Systems
EPSRC Industrial Sector Classifications:
Transport Systems and Vehicles
Related Grants:
EP/J01043X/1
Panel History:
Panel DatePanel NameOutcome
09 May 2012 Engineering Prioritisation Meeting - 9 May 2012 Announced
Summary on Grant Application Form
Despite of the fact that electrical cars are under development and have the potential to provide alternatives for short distance light duty transport, the internal combustion engine will continue to be the main power unit in vehicles for several decades to come. Compared with extensive research on combustion and after-treatment systems, little work has been completed with respect to engine system control optimisation, leaving considerable room to improve fuel economy and lower emissions. Current engine calibration process relies on deriving static tabular relationships and the corresponding values between each calibrated engine operating point, with closed-loop feedback control to adjust the settings accordingly for air-fuel ratio control in real engine operation so as to meet the performance targets and emissions legislation. Such a widely adopted method, however, is not efficient in achieving the best fuel economy of the vehicle due to the constraints in the time duration and cost of engine-bed based calibration. Environmental conditions changes, the time required for the closed-loop control to respond, cycle-by-cycle variations, and cylinder-to-cylinder variations make the current engine control impossible to handle the the optimisation of the engine functionalities.



The development trend for future engines is towards an on-board intelligence for control and calibration and some research activities for the development of model based control systems are reported in literature. However, feasible strategies to control the engine operation cycle-by-cycle and cylinder-by-cylinder are not yet available.

Expanding the work of the applicants in the related areas for many years, the overall Goal of this project is to use a combination of joint efforts from 3 research groups with expertise of engine technology, control technology and computing algorithm in order to develop and test a new engine control and calibration methodology with on-line intelligence built in. This overall goal will be achieved through realising the following objectives:

(1) To develop a full real-time multi-cylinder engine model for cylinder-resolved-control purpose

(2) To develop a novel engine control strategy involving optimization of control points and control point locations, and multi-objective evaluation of test cycle performance

(3) To develop dynamic multi-objective evolutionary algorithms for online engine control optimization

(4) To demonstrate the implementation of the engine control models initially on Hardware-in-the-Loop (HIL) dSPACE system and then further rapid prototyping on a test engine.

(5) To compare the engine performance using the new techniques with traditional calibration and control approaches, and demonstrate improvements in terms of engine output, fuel consumption, and emissions.



The new engine control methodology will be evaluated on a new Jaguar gasoline direct injection (GDI) engine model.

Key Findings
This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk
Potential use in non-academic contexts
This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk
Impacts
Description This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk
Summary
Date Materialised
Sectors submitted by the Researcher
This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk
Project URL:  
Further Information:  
Organisation Website: http://www.bham.ac.uk