Measurement and modelling of a linear electromagnetic actuator driven camless valve train for spark ignition IC engines under full load condition

Abstract

Camless engine valve train for gasoline engines particularly port injection engines offer major improvements over traditional system with fixed valve timing and lift, in terms of efficiency, maximum torque and power, and emissions. Electromagnetic driven valve actuators are very promising in this context, but there are significant control problems. The use of displacement sensor could add extra cost to the camless engine. In this work, a moving coil actuator driven valve train was designed and prototyped and a 1D single-cylinder internal combustion engine model was built to investigate the benefit of without throttle by adopting such camless valve train using Ricardo WAVE under full load operating conditions. A novel low-cost sensor named linear actuator position sensor (LAPS) based on flux linkage change on search coil was constructed in LabVIEW by using current, voltage and proximity sensors to detect the valve lift. The measurement of valve lift and current was reported to prove the feasibility of the camless valve train. The valve lift was used for the single-cylinder engine model and the simulation shows that the peak overall engine efficiency using camless valve train reaches 38.2% and the peak torque increases by 5 Nm compared conventional throttled engine under full load operating conditions. The LAPS model was validated by the experimental valve lift and the high accuracy indicates that the LAPS can be adopted for future development of camless valve train for spark ignition IC engines.