Real-time modelling of transient operation of turbocharged diesel engines

Abstract: In fact, nowadays the optimization of engines and powertrains towards cleaner, more fuel-efficient, and safer vehicles requires virtual tools for the simulation of the whole sys-tem well in advance of the design process. Moreover, management and diagnostic issues have key roles in the exploitation of the used technologies and solutions (e.g. double-stage turbo-charging, and high- and low-pressure exhaust gas recirculation). Without forgetting the impor-tance of experimental investigations, mathematical models are very useful tools to improve both the performance and the behaviour of engines and powertrains, with applications rang-ing from optimization of the system layout to definition and testing of control strategies. Starting from a brief overview of actual mathematical tools for simulation of the transient operation of diesel engines, several considerations are reported on the modelling criteria and approaches with reference to fast zero-dimensional mean-value models of engines and power-trains. An original library that the present authors and co-workers have built up in recent years for the ‘real-time ’ simulation of diesel engines is described, and several applications are reported. The presented models were validated and used to simulate the transient behaviour of typical automotive diesel engines