Modelling diesel engines with a variable-geometry turbocharger and exhaust gas recirculation by optimization of model parameters for capturing non-linear system dynamics

A mean-value model of a diesel engine with a variable-geometry turbocharger (VGT) and exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) is developed, parameterized, and validated. The intended model applications are system analysis, simulation, and development of model-based control systems. The goal is to construct a model that describes the gas flow dynamics including the dynamics in the manifold pressures, turbocharger, EGR, and actuators with few states in order to obtain short simulation times. An investigation of model complexity and descriptive capabilities is performed, resulting in a model that has only eight states. A Simulink implementation including a complete set of parameters of the model are available for download. To tune and validate the model, stationary and dynamic measurements have been performed in an engine laboratory. All the model parameters are estimated automatically using weighted least-squares optimization and it is shown that it is important to tune both the submodels and the complete model and not only the submodels or not only the complete model. In static and dynamic validations of the entire model, it is shown that the mean relative errors are 5.8 per cent or lower for all measured variables. The validations also show that the proposed model captures the system properties that are important for control design, i.e. a non-minimum phase behaviour in the channel EGR valve to the intake manifold pressure and a non-minimum phase behaviour, an overshoot, and a sign reversal in the VGT to the compressor mass flow channel, as well as couplings between channels.