Predictive thermal management of combustion engines

Temperature control is very important for combustion engines as temperature is a critical factor both for chemical reactions and mechanical stresses. Traditionally, temperature control is performed by feedback of a global quantity, the coolant temperature, which however is a poor indicator of specific temperatures. The use of electrical pumps opens new possibilities for thermal control, in particular in terms of efficiency, but also of pollution, especially in the cold start phase. This paper, instead, shows that predictive control and the use of electrical coolant pumps allows to regulate specific temperatures - here as an example the cylinder head temperature. The experiment based results shown in impressive reduction of the thermal swing for the use of an electrical pump speed control using a model predictive approach. The work related has been performed in the framework of a Regins Interreg project in cooperation with a leading producer of coolant pumps.