Paving the Way to Controlled Combustion Engines (CCE)

In order to advance the technology of combustion in engines, the execution of heat release, or, more precisely, the evolution of exothermic energy, should be treated as a manufacturing process: at the input are the reactants, the cylinder charge comprised of compressed air mixed with fuel and recirculated exhaust or, better, residual gas, and at the output are products, among which the most noteworthy are useful work and harmful pollutants. The conversion of reactants into products is carried out by the exothermic process of the oxidation of a hydrocarbon fuel. It is then the execution of this process that warrants particular attention, so that in the engine of the future it would be modulated by an electronic control system. Described in the paper is a rational method for engineering implementation of this concept, associated with the exploitation of the best that modern computer and control technologies have to offer.