Preliminary Experimental Verification of an Intelligent Fuel Air Ratio Controller

This paper presents the experimental verification of a new type of fuel-air ratio controller for spark ignition (SI) engines. The controller does not require any initial calibration before its first use on a new engine beyond some very general information which is used to generate an initial fuel map. The controller then continually updates this nonlinear fuel map in response to changes in the engine or fuel while driving. The controller was implemented on a 2003 Vortec 6L V8 engine in a General Motors 2500HD truck with an OEM (original equipment manufacturer) natural gas conversion. Preliminary results indicate the controller behaves in a manner comparable to OEM controllers in terms of drivability and exhaust emissions, at potentially a much lower development cost.