Control of spray evaporative cooling in automotive IC engines

A novel approach is proposed for precise control of two-phase spray evaporative cooling for thermal management of road vehicle internal combustion engines. A reduced-order plant model is first constructed by combining published spray evaporative cooling correlations with approximate governing heat transfer equations appropriate for IC engine thermal management. Control requirements are specified to allow several objectives to be met simultaneously under different load conditions. A control system is proposed and modelled in abstract form to achieve spray evaporative cooling of a gasoline engine, with simplifying assumptions made about the characteristics of the coolant pump, spray nozzle, and condenser. The system effectiveness is tested by simulation to establish its ability to meet key requirements, particularly concerned with precision control during transients resulting from rapid engine load variation. The results confirm the robustness of the proposed control strategy in accurately tracking a specified temperature profile at various constant load conditions, and also in the presence of realistic transient load variation.