C. Ramesh Kumar

A review on control system architecture of a SI engine management system

Abstract Engine management systems (EMS) has become an essential component of a spark ignition (SI) engine in order to achieve high performance; low fuel consumption and low exhaust emissions. An engine management system (EMS) is a mixed-signal embedded system interacting with the engine through number of sensors and actuators. In addition, it includes an engine control algorithm in the control unit. The control strategies in EMS are intended for air-to-fuel ratio control, ignition control, electronic throttle control, idle speed control, etc. Hence, the control system architecture of an EMS consists of many sub-control modules in its structural design to provide an effective output from the engine. Superior output from the engine is attained by the effective design and implementation of the control system in EMS. The design of an engine control system is a very challenging task because of the complexity of the functions involved. This paper consolidates an overview of the vital developments within the SI engine control system strategies and reviews about some of the basic control modules in the engine management system.

Polymer composites for thermal management: a review

Abstract The aim of this review article is to consolidate the important research works dedicated to polymers which are mainly used target material for heat transfer applications. The requirement of present day heat transfer equipment is compactness, lightweight, manufacturability, and lower cost. Materials like copper and aluminum though have better thermal conductivity but they are expensive and also heavy. Polymers are cheaper and easy to manufacture, recycle though they have sufficiently lower thermal conductivity compared to copper and aluminum. Polymer materials are thermally insulating material. It is too difficult to improve the amorphous nature of polymer material in order to achieve high thermal conductivity. One key path to increase the thermal conductivity of a polymer is to reinforce high thermal conductive fillers in the host matrix. In this review paper, an attempt is made to explore and summarize various key paths suggested by the researchers to develop high thermal conductive polymer composites.

Trends and future perspectives of electronic throttle control system in a spark ignition engine

Abstract Electronic throttle control (ETC) system has turned into an extremely prominent system with a specific end goal to vary the intake airflow rate to provide a better fuel economy, emissions, drivability and also for integration with other systems in spark ignition engines. ETC system consists of mechatronic device called as electronic throttle body (ETB) which is located in the intake manifold of an engine after the air filter and also has a separate control system in the engine management system (EMS). The throttle angle has to be precisely maintained based on the driver and other system requirements to provide an enhanced throttle response and drivability. However, existence of nonlinearities in the system, such as limp-home position, friction, airflow and aging, affects the position accuracy of the throttle valve. A control system strategy is employed in EMS to handle the other system requirements in throttle opening angle estimation and the nonlinearities in position control. This work features developments within the electronic throttle control system and reviews about the various research work carried in this area. This work will not enforce any new results rather than it will discuss the trends followed in past and also proposes some of the future perspectives in the electronic throttle control process.

PVA/K2Ti6O13 synthetic composite for dielectric applications

We demonstrated the preparation of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) /Potassium titanate (K2Ti6O13) synthetic composite by solution blending. The loading of K2Ti6O13 well dispersed in PVA and improved electrical performance. The dielectric constant and loss as a function of temperature were recorded under frequency (200Hz-1 kHz). The real dielectric constant value obtained is (e=1000) feasible for various electronic and non-conventional energy applications.

Optimized surface topography of thermoplastics blends modified by graphene

Polyacrilonitrile (PAN)/ Polyvinylfloride (PVDF) blends were modified by loading the graphene (0.5 to 1.5 wt %). The presence of graphene reveals the interesting surface properties. The decrease in surface roughness as function of graphene loading was confirmed by the topographic method of recording (two and three dimensional images) with atomic force microscope (AFM). The blends become smoother in nature due to occupied smaller surface area of graphene. This property may be useful for several applications in the marine, naval, nuclear domain and engineering applications as barrier medium.

Experimental investigations and guidelines for PCB design for a fuel injection ECU to meet automotive environmental, EMI/EMC and ESD standards

Engine Management ECU plays a vital role in controlling different important features related to the engine performance. ECU is an embedded system which includes hardware and firmware platform for control logics. However, it is necessary to verify its smooth performance by its functionality testing in the Electromagnetic environment for approval. If these requirements are not known at earlier stages, then ECU may not fulfil functional requirements during required automotive electronic test standards. Hence, focusing on EMS ECU, this paper highlights hardware, layout and software guidelines for solving problems related with Electromagnetic Interference (EMI) to comply ISO 7637, CISPR 25 standard, Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC) to comply ISO 11452-4,5 standard, Electrostatic Discharge (ESD) to comply ISO 10605 standard and Environmental Testing to comply standards as per IEC standards. This paper specifies initially the importance, need and guidelines for reducing the EMI effect on PCB i.e. making ECU more electromagnetically compatible as per automotive standards. The guidelines are useful for the designers to avoid pitfalls at the later stage. After mentioned modifications in the paper, ECU successfully passed the requirements for all standard tests.

Performance Analysis of Single Module Thermoelectric Generator

The need of energy is increasing enormously day by day and presently it is being fulfilled mostly by depleting energy resources like coal and petroleum based fuels. This situation pushes mankind to search for novel green technologies which can convert efficiently even low grade heat energy into useful energy. Thermoelectric generator (TEG) promises to be clear technology to generate electricity. TEG uses temperature gradient between source and sink to generate electricity. In this study, performance of commercially available thermoelectric module was studied using a specially designed cross flow heat exchanger. The heat exchanger was optimized previously using commercially available CFD package Ansys CFX. The efficiency of thermoelectric module was calculated by taking figure of merit and Carnot efficiency into consideration. The results indicate that the commercially available TEG used in this study, which is made of Bismuth Telluride performs efficiently at higher temperature difference and value of figure of merit is around one at maximum efficiency.