Control of Combustion Phasing Using Accelerometer-Based Non-Intrusive Sensing

Abstract Measuring the combustion phasing of an engine using in-cylinder pressure sensors is well established. However, pressure sensors need to be directly exposed to the in-cylinder environment, requiring changes to the cylinder head. Several methods have been proposed for sensing combustion phasing non-intrusively by mounting an accelerometer on the engine block. This paper presents real-time control of combustion phasing in a compression-ignition engine using non-intrusive accelerometer-based sensing during a dynamic fuel switch. A systematic data-driven control framework capable of handling fuel switching in real-time is used. The control is designed based on the pressure data, and the real-time implementation is performed using the accelerometer signal. Results from combustion phasing tracking experiments performed on a compression-ignition engine are presented.