A Practical, Simulation Based Approach to the Teaching of Engine Mapping and Calibration Fundamentals

The teaching of engine mapping and calibration provides a unique challenge to Universities and Technical institutes the world over. The engine test cell facilities required for such tuition is prohibitively expensive for many organizations, for those fortunate enough to have the facilities their use is often already oversubscribed. In any case it is not desirable to have untrained operatives experimenting with expensive and potentially dangerous equipment without very close time intensive supervision. In the School of Engineering Design and Technology at the University of Bradford, although fortunate enough to have a number of state-of-the-art transient engine test cells, these safety concerns are contrasted against students' frustrations at a lack of practical experience in this area for the above reasons. Efforts have been made recently to increase students' exposure to the practical elements; this paper present two tools that are currently being developed to achieve this, a hardware-in-loop (HiL) engine test cell simulator and standalone software based calibration demonstrator.

Feedback from students on the trial of the HiL rig and software tool has been very positive with the process having also assisted students in achieving a fuller understanding of the fundamentals of internal combustion engine operation. The rig and software tool has been shown to successfully provide an interactive learning experience that is conducted on the desktop rather than in an engine test cell ensuring (novice) operator safety and achieving considerable cost savings. Improvements to the rig in terms of its packaging and capabilities are currently being undertaken.