SBIR-STTR Award

The sole purpose of combustion in a piston engine is to generate pressure in order to push the piston and produce work. Pressure diagnostics provide a tool for evaluating the execution of the exothermic process of combustion in an engine cylinder. Its task is that of an inverse problem: evaluation of the mechanism of a system from its measured output. The dynamic properties of the closed system in a piston engine are expressed in terms of a dynamic stage- the transition between the processes of compression and expansion. A Micro-Electronic Controlled Combustion (MECC) system final design will be completed in the Phase I effort and the system built and demonstrated in Phase II. This proposal provides a theoretical model which will serve as a basis for design of the micro-electronic control system. The low-cost micro-sensor that to be used for primary input to the model is a pressure transducer, providing the possibility for an unprecedented level of cylinder pressure-based closed-loop control and engine health monitoring based on theoretical analysis rather than empirical calibrations. The goal of this effort is to extend engine control and diagnostics to microsecond resolution, allowing a robust and reliable engine controller to influence the action of a cycle based on interpretation of the previous cycle

A Micro-Electronic Controlled Combustion (MECC) system was designed in the Phase I effort and, the system will be built and demonstrated in Phase II. The low-cost microsensor to be used for primary input to the model is a pressure transducer, providing the possibility for an unprecedented level of cylinder pressure-based closed-loop control and engine health monitoring based on analysis of pressure data rather than on empirical calibrations. The goal of this effort is to extend engine control and diagnostics to microsecond resolution, allowing a robust and reliable engine controller to influence the action of a cycle based on interpretation of the previous cycle.

Keywords:
Engine Controls, Diagnostics, Prognostics, Engine Health Monitoring, Engine Reliability, Engine Durability, Reduce Engine Fuel Consumption