Predictive control allocation for a thermal management system based on an inner loop reference model – design, analysis and experimental results

Abstract—This paper addresses the challenge of controlling an overactuated engine thermal management system where two ac-tuators, with different dynamic authorities and saturation limits, are used to obtain tight temperature regulation. A modular control strategy is proposed that combines model predictive control allo-cation (MPCA) with the use of an inner loop reference model. This results in an inner loop controller that closely matches a dynamic specification for input-output performance while addressing actu-ator dynamics and saturation constraints. This paper presents the design and implementation strategy and illustrates the effective-ness of the proposed solution through real-time simulation and ex-perimental results. Index Terms—Automotive control, decentralized control, model predictive control (MPC), powertrain control. I. INTRODUCTION AND PROBLEM FORMULATIO