GB2480845A

GB2480845A - Bench test apparatus for an internal combustion engine and testing method therefor

Info

Publication number: GB2480845A
Application number: GB1009304A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Nicola Costa
Original assignee: GM Global Technology Operations LLC
Current assignee: GM Global Technology Operations LLC
Priority date: 2010-06-03
Filing date: 2010-06-03
Publication date: 2011-12-07
Anticipated expiration: 2030-06-03
Also published as: GB201009304D0; GB2480845B

Abstract

An embodiment of the invention provides a bench test apparatus (1) for operating an internal combustion engine (10), the engine (10) having an intake manifold (12) and an exhaust manifold (14), and being controlled by an electronic control unit (20), wherein the apparatus (1) comprises an external compressor (16) that is connectable to the intake manifold (12), electronic control means (22) controlling the external compressor (16) and being connectable to the electronic control unit (20), a pressure regulator valve (30) for regulating the pressure value in the intake manifold (12) and a pressure sensor (26) for measuring the pressure in the intake manifold (12) of the engine (10), the pressure regulator valve (30) and the pressure sensor (26) being connected to the electronic control means (22).

Description

BENCH TEST APPARATUS FOR AN INTERNAL CCIxUSTION ENGII\TE AND TESTING METHOD TI-'REOF

TEICAL FIElD

The present disclosure relates to a bench test apparatus for an internal combustion engine and to a testing method thereof. BAOt

The development process of a new engine provided with a turbocharger is performed through a series of steps.

In particular a preliminary analysis activity is performed by means of which it is possible to simulate, using dedicated software, several turbocharger equipment solutions coming from different suppliers. As an example, it is possible to have four or five different turbocharger solution proposals from three, four or more different suppliers, a situation that gives a total number of simulations ranging from 12 to 20 or even more, which generally take in 3-4 weeks.

After this preliminary analysis, it is necessary to test on a bench test a turbocharger mule, namely a turbocharger prototype applied to a specific engine.

Bench testing, however, is much longer and expensive in such advanced development phase of turbocharger mules due to the above mentioned necessity of turbocharger hardware to support the tests perfonned on the bench and also for the following reasons.

A first reason is that the delivery time for turbocharger mules is very long. For example, the design and tooling operation may take approximately 15 weeks for single stages, and approximately 22 weeks for twin stages, if not more.

A second reason is the high costs of prototypes both for single stage turbines and for twin stage turbines, considering that these latter may cost even double than the single stage.

Finally, it is impossible to run tests with all the possible combinations between turbocharger solutions and engines because of the high number of possible combinations.

SYST DESIPTI

1-\n object of an embodiment of the invention is to reproduce the effect of a specific turbocharger and engine combination on a test bench, without need to have turbocharger physical parts.

A further object of an embodiment of the invention is to allow an easy reproducibility of the technical performance of any different turbocharger and engine combination on a test bench.

Still a further object of an embodiment of the invention is to be applicable to any typology of turbochargers, such as single stage or twin stage, and also to superchargers.

Another object of an erabodirnent of the invention is to provide for a method for simulating any turbocharger and engine combination with substantial cost and time savings.

These objects are achieved by a bench test apparatus, by a method, by a computer program and computer program product, and by an electromagnetic signal having the features recited in the independent claims.

The dependent claims delineate preferred and/or especially advantageous aspects.

An embodiment of the disclosure provides a bench test apparatus for operating an internal combustion engine, the engine having an intake manifold and an exhaust manifold, and being controlled by an electronic control unit, wherein the apparatus comprises an external compressor that is connectable to the intake manifold, electronic control means controlling the external compressor and being connectable to the electronic control unit, a pressure regulator valve for regulating the pressure value in the intake manifold and a pressure sensor for measuring the pressure in the intake manifold, the pressure regulator valve and the pressure sensor being connected to the electronic control means.

An advantage of this embodiment is that it allows to simulate the pressure deriving from a turbocharger at the intake manifold of an engine.

According to a further embodiment of the invention, the bench test apparatus comprises a pressure regulator valve for regulating the pressure value in the exhaust manifold and a pressure sensor for measuring the pressure in the exhaust manifold, said pressure regulator valve and said pressure sensor being connected to the electronic control means.

An advantage of this embodiment is that it allows to a more complete simulation of the effect of turbocharger at the intake manifold of an engine.

Another embodiment of the invention provides for a bench test apparatus wherein the electronic control means of the external compressor are embedded into the Electronic Control Unit of the engine.

Advantageously, this embodiment avoids a dedicated ECU to drive the bench test apparatus.

Another embodiment of the invention provides for a bench test apparatus wherein the external compressor is driven by an electric motor connected to the electronic control means and is connected to an air pressure tank.

This embodiment allows to regulate efficiently the pressure to be fed into the engine system.

Another embodiment of the invention provides bench test apparatus comprising a temperature sensor for measuring a temperature value in the intake manifold and a temperature sensor for measuring a temperature value in the exhaust manifold, the temperature sensors being connected to the electronic control means.

This embodiment is useful to add temperature information to the test.

Another embodiment of the invention provides a bench test apparatus comprising an heat exchanger connectable to the intake manifold of the engine.

This embodiment is useful to avoid excessive heat in the engine.

A further aspect of the invention provides for a method for testing an internal combustion engine, the engine having an intake manifold and an exhaust manifold, and being controlled by an electronic control unit, the method comprising the steps of: -compressing air in the intake manifold by an external compressor; -determining values of physical parameters of a fluid circulating in the intake manifold; -determining values concerning engine operating parameters; -using the determined values to control the external compressor and a pressure regulator valve connected to the intake manifold of the engine.

Advantageously, this embodiment allows to use information from the engine system to regulate the pressure to be fed into the engine system in order to simulate a turbocharger equipment applied to the engine.

A further embodiment of the invention provides for a method further comprising the steps of determining values of physical parameters of a fluid circulating in the exhaust manifold and of using the determined values to control the external compressor and a pressure regulator valve connected to the exhaust manifold of the engine.

A further embodiment of the invention provides for a method comprising a further step of obtaining data derived from software simulations of turbocharger equipment in order to control the external compressor and the pressure regulator valves connected to the intake manifold and/or to the exhaust manifold.

This embodiment provides a procedure that allows to simulate the pressure deriving from a specific turbocharger, defined by the simulation data available.

BRIE DESCRIPTICT OF THE DRAWING

The various embodiments will now be described, by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawing, in which: Figure 1 is a schematic representation of an embodiment of the bench apparatus of the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPrIa1 OF THE DRAWING Preferred embodiments will now be described with reference to the enclosed drawing.

In figure 1 it is shown a bench test apparatus 1 according to an embodiment of the invention, the apparatus 1 comprising an external compressor 16, driven by an electric motor 18, an air pressure tank 24 and electronic control means 22 of said compressor 16, the electronic control means 22 having a suitable data carrier 38.

The external compressor 16, in conjunction with the air pressure tank 24, is able to simulate the pressure deriving from a specific turbocharger at the intake manifold 12 of an engine 10, as it will be explained in more detail in the following description.

The electronic control means 22 control the operation of the electric motor 18 which in turn drives the external compressor. In this respect, the electronic control means 22 are fed with data coming from preliminary software simulations of turbocharger performance (block 36) in order to drive the external compressor 16 and other elements of the bench test apparatus 1.

Furthermore, the engine 10 has an intake manifold 12 and an exhaust manifold 14 and is provided with an engine Electronic Control Unit (ECU) 20 that may control an engine throttle valve 32 and may send to the electronic control means 22 data useful to operate the bench test apparatus 1. The intake manifold 12 has an intake pressure sensor 26 and the exhaust manifold 14 has an exhaust pressure sensor 28. Other sensors may be provided in different embodiments of the invention such as, for example, temperature sensors 40, 42 in the intake and in the exhaust manifold.

Eventually, an heat exchanger 44 may be provided in the intake manifold.

The ECU 20 of the engine may also provide to the electronic control means 22 data concerning the boost target required in various operating conditions of the engine.

The bench test apparatus 1 is also provided with a pressure regulator valve 30 to regulate pressure at the intake side and with a backpressure valve 34 to regulate pressure at the exhaust side.

More specifically, the pressure regulator valve 30 is also connected to electronic control means 22 and, in conjunction with the external compressor and the pressure tank 24, can be regulated in order to simulate the pressure in the intake manifold deriving from a turbocharger equipment.

In an ernbodflnent of the invention the electronic control means 22 of the external compressor 16 may be embedded into the Electronic Control Unit 20 of the engine 10.

Moreover it must be noted that the bench test apparatus 1 allows the possibility to simulate on the bench different turbochargers by simply changing the input data 36 to the electronic control means 22.

In fact, with this test bench it is possible to reproduce the boost pressure given by a turbocharger system already simulated with a software analysis tool, without the need to have the corresponding physical parts.

Data coming from software turbocharger simulations maybe expressed in the form of curves of pressure and temperature or other relevant parameter as a function of engine speed or of other engine parameters.

In particular, the test bench apparatus 1 operates in the following manner.

Intake pressure sensor 26 and exhaust pressure sensor 28 provide information about intake and exhaust pressure to the electronic control means 22 associated to the pressure tank 24.

The engine ECU 29 provides engine parameters information to the electronic control means 22 associated to the pressure tank 24, parameters such as for example engine speed expressed in Revolutions Per Minute (RPM) and the boost target required for such operating condition.

Data derived from software simulations of turbocharger equipment (block 36) are loaded into the electronic control means 22 associated to the air pressure tank 24.

Then, the electronic control means 22 uses the data from the specific simulation of interest, the information on pressure (or eventually also on temperature or other parameters) in the intake and in the exhaust rrnifold of the engine 10, and information from the engine 10 itself, in order to drive the valves 32 and 34, simulating the boost given by the specific turbocharger system being tested and the backpressure caused by the aftertreatment system on the vehicle.

If a different turbocharger equipment needs to simulated on the engine, it is sufficient to feed the relative set of data from the software simulations into the bench test apparatus 1.

While at least one exemplary embodiment has been presented in the foregoing summary and detailed description, it should be appreciated that a vast number of variations exist. It should also be appreciated that the exemplary embodiment or exemplary embodiments are only examples, and are not intended to limit the scope, applicability, or configuration in any way. Rather, the foregoing summary and detailed description will provide those skilled in the art with a convenient road map for implementing at least one exemplary embodiment, it being understood that various changes may be made in the function and arrangement of elements described in an exemplary embodiment without departing from the scope as set forth in the appended claims and their legal equivalents.

REFER dBS 1 apparatus engine 12 intake manifold 14 exhaust manifold 16 external compressor 18 electric motor engine ECU 22 electronic control means 24 pressure tank 26 intake pressure sensor 28 exhaust pressure sensor pressure regulator valve 32 engine throttle valve 34 backpressure throttle valve 36 simulation input block 38 data carrier intake temperature sensor 42 exhaust temperature sensor 44 intake heat exchanger

Claims

1. A bench test apparatus (1) for operating an internal combustion engine (10), the engine (10) having an intake manifold (12) and an exhaust manifold (14), and being controlled by an electronic control unit (20), wherein the apparatus (1) comprises an external compressor (16) that is connectable to the intake manifold (12) of the engine (10), electronic control means (22) controlling the external compressor (16) and being connectable to the electronic control unit (20), a pressure regulator valve (30) for regulating the pressure value in the intake manifold (12) and a pressure sensor (26) for measuring the pressure in the intake manifold (12), the pressure regulator valve (30) and the pressure sensor (26) being connected to the electronic control means (22).

2. Bench test apparatus (1) according to claim 1, comprising a pressure regulator valve (34) for regulating the pressure value in the exhaust manifold (14) and a pressure sensor (28) for measuring the pressure in the exhaust manifold (14), said pressure regulator valve (34) and said pressure sensor (28) being connected to the electronic control means (22).

3. Bench test apparatus (1) according to claim 1, wherein the electronic control means (22) of the external compressor (16) are embedded into the Electronic Control Unit (20) of the engine (10).

4. Bench test apparatus (1) according to claim 1, wherein the external compressor (16) is driven by an electric motor (18) connected to the electronic control means (22) and is connected to an air pressure tank (24).

5. Bench test apparatus (1) according to claim 1, comprising a temperature sensor (40) for measuring a temperature value in the intake manifold (12) and a temperature sensor (42) for measuring a temperature value in the exhaust manifold (14), the temperature sensors (40,42) being connected to the electronic control means (22).

6. Bench test apparatus (1) according to claim 1, comprising an heat exchanger (44) connectable to the intake manifold (12) of the engine (10).

7. Method for testing an internal combustion engine (10), the engine (10) having an intake manifold (12) and an exhaust manifold (14), and being controlled by an electronic control unit (20), the method comprising the steps of: -compressing air in the intake manifold (12) by an external compressor (16); -determining values of physical parameters of a fluid circulating in the intake manifold (12); -determining values concerning engine (10) operating parameters; -using the determined values to control the external compressor (16) and a pressure regulator valve (30) connected to the intake manifold (12) of the engine.

8. Method according to claim 7, further comprising the steps of determining values of physical parameters of a fluid circulating in the exhaust manifold (14) and of using the determined values to control the external compressor (16) and a pressure regulator valve (34) connected to the exhaust manifold (14) of the engine (10)

9. Method according to claim 8, comprising a further step of obtaining data derived from software simulations of turbocharger equipment in order to control the external compressor (16) and the pressure regulator valves (30,34) connected to the intake manifold (12) and/or to the exhaust manifold (14).