Review of engine control-oriented combustion models

As requirements for continuously improving internal combustion engine fuel economy with satisfactory emissions, model-based control strategies are often used to optimize the combustion process. To apply advanced control techniques for closed-loop engine combustion control, control-oriented engine combustion models are necessary and they are physics-based, accurate enough for model-based control, computationally low cost, and capable of real-time simulations. In addition, control-oriented combustion model with adequate fidelity may need to adapt to physical system and environment changes over time to maintain model-based control performance, such as model-reference (guided) control, where the control-oriented combustion model runs in real-time to generate an error signal between physical system and reference-model output for feedback control. This paper provides a review of existing control-oriented engine combustion models, along with their associated applications. Three main groups of control-oriented combustion models are reviewed from simple to sophisticated physics-based dynamic models, including mean-value, Wiebe function-based, and reaction-based models. The fundamental principle of each model group is reviewed briefly and its applications are also addressed. At the macro level, a control-oriented engine model can be used for crank angle-based and/or cycle-based control. As the engine control hardware performance continuous improving with reduced cost, model-reference (guided) combustion control shall become reality since now it is feasible to run a physics-based control-oriented engine combustion model inside an engine control module. On the other hand, each model group, even for the simple mean-value model, has its own applicable scenarios.