Title: A new electro-hydraulic valvetrain configuration with improved lift controllability

Authors: Mohammad Pournazeri; Amir Khajepour; Amir Fazeli

Addresses: Department of Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering, University of Waterloo, 200 University Ave, Waterloo, ON, N2L 3G1, Canada ' Department of Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering, University of Waterloo, 200 University Ave, Waterloo, ON, N2L 3G1, Canada ' Department of Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering, University of Waterloo, 200 University Ave, Waterloo, ON, N2L 3G1, Canada

Abstract: In this paper, a new technique is proposed to control the engine valve lift in electro-hydraulic valvetrains. To decrease the computational costs and controller complexity, an average model of the system is derived based on the energy conservation principle. A Sliding Mode Controller (SMC) is designed based on system average model and its performance is evaluated at different operating conditions. The results show a steady-state tracking error of less than 0.5 mm for the final valve lift. Finally, the mechanism's robustness and its power consumption are studied and the results are compared with those obtained from the existing mechanisms.

Keywords: electro-hydraulic valvetrain; valve lift control; controllability; variable valve actuation; engine valve lift; average model; sliding mode control; power consumption; powertrains.

DOI: 10.1504/IJPT.2012.048405

International Journal of Powertrains, 2012 Vol.1 No.3, pp.221 - 243

Received: 05 Jul 2010
Accepted: 05 Apr 2011
Published online: 05 Dec 2014 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article