Book Description

Homogeneous Compressed Charge Ignition (HCCI) has elevated the need for Start of Combustion (SOC) sensors. HCCI engines have been the exciting focus of engine research recently, primarily because HCCI offers higher thermal efficiency than the conventional Spark Ignition (SI) engines and significantly lower NOx and soot emissions than conventional Compression Ignition (CI) engines, and could be fuel neutral. HCCI has the potential to unify all the internal combustion engine technology to achieve the high-efficiency, low-emission goal. However, these advantages do not come easy. It is well known that the problems encountered with HCCI combustion center on the difficulty of controlling the Start of Combustion. TIAX has an SOC sensor under development which has shown promise. In previous work, including a DOE-sponsored SBIR project, TIAX has developed an accelerometer-based method which was able to determine SOC within a few degrees crank angle for a range of operating conditions. A signal processing protocol allows reconstruction of the combustion pressure event signal imbedded in the background engine vibration recorded by the accelerometer. From this reconstructed pressure trace, an algorithm locates the SOC. This SOC sensor approach is nonintrusive, rugged, and is particularly robust when the pressure event is strong relative to background engine vibration (at medium to high engine load). Phase I of this project refined the previously developed technology with an engine-generic and robust algorithm. The objective of the Phase I research was to answer two fundamental questions: Can the accelerometer-based SOC sensor provide adequate SOC event capture to control an HCCI engine in a feedback loop? And, will the sensor system meet cost, durability, and software efficiency (speed) targets? Based upon the results, the answer to both questions was 'YES'. The objective of Phase II-A was to complete the parameter optimization of the SOC sensor prototype in order to reach a juncture where plans can be and are discussed with an industry partner for how best to perform a more detailed implementation of the TIAX SOC technology on an HCCI engine system. This occurred, as evidenced the number of potential commercialization partners shown in Table 4. Potential Commercialization Partners Contacted (up to date as of January 31, 2010). During the two phases, a robust, engine-generic algorithm was developed that met the desired targets and was shown to work extremely well for HCCI engine operation.