Optimal tuning of control variables in CR Diesel engines via Multi-Zone modelling of combustion and emissions with experimental testing

The interest in Diesel engines for automotive application has dramatically grown in the last decades, due to the benefits gained with the introduction of Common Rail system and electronic control. A strong increase in fuel economy and a remarkable reduction of emissions and combustion noise have been achieved, thanks to both optimized fuelling strategy and advanced fuel injection technology. In the last years many efforts are addressed towards a suitable design of engine control strategies and consequently new combustion concepts, such as Low Temperature Combustion (LTC), in order to face with the Soot/NOx trade off and the increasingly restrictive emission standards. Nevertheless the large number of control variables (i.e. injection pattern, EGR, VGT) makes the experimental testing extremely expensive in terms of time and money. Massive use of advanced mathematical models to simulate engine and system components (mechanical and electronic devices) is therefore recommended to speed up the design and optimization of engine control strategies... [edited by Author]