Integrated Breathing Model and Multi-Variable Control Approach for Air Management in Advanced Gasoline Engine

The evolution of automotive engines calls for the design of electronic control systems optimizing the engine performance in terms of reduced fuel consumption and pollutant emissions. However, the opportunities provided by modern engines have not yet completely exploited, since the adopted control strategies are still largely developed in a very heuristic way and rely on a number of SISO (Single Input Single Output) designs. On the contrary, the strong coupling between the available actuators calls for a MIMO (Multi Input Multi Output) control design approach. To this regard, the availability of reliable dynamic engine models plays an important role in the design of engine control and diagnostic systems, allowing for a significant reduction of the development times and costs. This paper presents a control-oriented model of the air-path system of today's gasoline internal combustion engines. The engine model is developed according to a Mean Value Model (MVM) approach, and includes the modeling of exhaust gas recirculation (EGR), valve variable timing (VVT) and tumble valves. The model is validated with experimental data referred both to steady state and to transient conditions.