Increasing concerns about global climate change and ever increasing demands on fossil fuel capacity call for improved fuel economy of automotive engines with reduced emissions. With many biofuel and hydrogen applications on the near horizon, the next generation of automotive engines will be required to operate with multiple fuels and combustion modes. The engine combustion process will have to be optimized to maximize combustion efficiency with improved emissions under different fuel blends and combustion modes. To meet this challenge, advanced engine control will be needed to automatically adapt to the fuel blend and combustion mode.
The research conducted at Guoming (George) Zhu’s automotive control lab uses model-based control techniques to accurately control engine fuel injection timing and mass, charge mixture temperature and composition, and to control the valvetrain and other engine subsystems. Control-oriented engine models are being developed and implemented in the lab in a hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) simulation environment to support model-based control development and validation. After HIL validation, the developed controllers will be used and validated in engine dynamometer tests.
Dr. Zhu is also conducting research in areas of integrated identification and control of automotive systems, optimal control of hybrid powertrain systems, combustion mode transition control, and development of linear parameter-varying gain-scheduling control scheme with application to aerospace vibration control problems. Active control of the automotive engine and its subsystems is an essential foundation needed to make new engine technologies possible. Research at MSU ranges from new control concept development to validation and demonstration.
