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University of Cambridge

Feedback control of transient smoke emissions from compression ignition engines

Abstract

dc:description.abstract

The smoke emission from diesel engines is now regarded as a very significant problem because of greater public consciousness of environment damage, and in some countries legislation is now in force limiting the particulate generation. This thesis describes work on the feedback control of diesel smoke, in which a new smoke sensor was used to make real-time smoke detection feasible during engine transients. Experimental results demonstrated that this control system significantly reduced the smoke 'puff' normally generated by a sudden power demand. An advanced identification method is presented, which models the engine based on experiments. This method is dependent on an understanding of the sampling action of the fuel injector on a diesel engine and utilizes a synchronization technique for acquiring the information of the engine dynamics. Parameter estimation was used to derive the models of speed-to-fuel rack and smoke-to-fuel rack. The nonlinearity of the model of smoke-to-fuel rack was investigated in a preliminary way. Two kinds of controllers, non-adaptive controllers and self-tuning controllers, were developed and implemented on a real engine. The non-adaptive controllers, designed with a combination of PI control algorithm and optimisation of the engine performance, were of relatively low complexity and had the ability to work effectively at light-load engine conditions. The self-tuning controllers associated with a smoke predictor were applied to solve the problems of the system nonlinearity and enable the control system to work in a wider range of engine operations. The problem associated with self-tuning controllers were demonstrated but the possibility of using such controllers was proven.

Degree

thesis:*
Name dc:type.qualificationname
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Level dc:type.qualificationlevel
Doctoral
Grantor dc:publisher.institution
University of Cambridge
Year dc:date.issued
1989

Author and committee

dc:creator, dc:contributor.*
Author dc:creator
  • Hong, Guang

Rights

dc:rights
Language dc:language
eng

Identifiers

dc:identifier.*
DOI dc:identifier.doi
https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.44503
OAI identifier oai:identifier
oai:www.repository.cam.ac.uk:1810/297442

Chain of custody

source
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Cambridge University
Base URL
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Last updated
2026-07-22
Source record
OAI-PMH GetRecord
related terms
citation

Hong, Guang. Feedback control of transient smoke emissions from compression ignition engines. Doctoral thesis, University of Cambridge, 1989. https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.44503