Investigation of an Inexpensive Piezoelectric Pressure Sensor for Internal Combustion Engine Spark Timing Control

An inexpensive piezoelectric pressure sensor capable of detecting the internal combustion peak pressure position has been developed by Oceana Sensor Technologies for mass production. This paper describes the principle, structure and the Finite Element model of the designed sensor. A state-space model of the piezoelectric input/output system is extracted based on model reduction method. The performance of this sensor is evaluated using test engine and compared with a commercially available sensor.