Hybrid State Space Modeling of a Spark Ignition Engine for Online Fault Diagnosis

In this work, a nonlinear hybrid state space model of a complete spark ignition (SI) gasoline engine system from throttle to muffler is developed using the mass and energy balance equations. It provides within-cycle dynamics of all the engine variables such as temperature, pressure, and mass of individual gas species in the intake manifold (IM), cylinder, and exhaust manifold (EM). The inputs to the model are the same as that commonly exercised by the engine control unit (ECU), and its outputs correspond to available engine sensors. It uses generally known engine parameters, does not require extensive engine maps found in mean value models (MVMs), and requires minimal experimentation for tuning. It is demonstrated that the model is able to capture a variety of engine faults by suitable parameterization. The state space modeling is parsimonious in having the minimum number of integrators in the model by appropriate choice of state. It leads to great computational efficiency due to the possibility of deriving the Jacobian expressions analytically in applications such as on-board state estimation. The model was validated both with data from an industry standard engine simulation and those from an actual engine after relevant modifications. For the test engine, the engine speed and crank angle were extracted from the crank position sensor signal. The model was seen to match the true values of engine variables both in simulation and experiments.