Development of a Robust MEMs Based Micro Technology Engine Management and Health Monitoring System

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.