Exhaust valve drive control method and device

The present invention provides a method for controlling a closing operation of an exhaust valve (11) in an internal combustion engine. A current position X 0 of the exhaust valve (11) and a rotation speed Ne of the internal combustion engine are determined, and on the basis of the current position X 0 and rotation speed Ne, a time T 0 at which a piston arrives at the current position X 0 of the exhaust valve (11) is calculated. The closing operation of the exhaust valve (11) is then started before this arrival time T 0 . Next, a time T 1 at which the gap between the exhaust valve (11) and piston reaches a first predetermined value hc1 is calculated, and when this time T 1 arrives, the closing operation of the exhaust valve (11) is stopped temporarily. A time T 2 at which the piston arrives at the stopping position X 1 of the exhaust valve (11) is then calculated, and the closing operation of the exhaust valve (11) is resumed before this arrival time T 2 .