A Dynamic Model of an

Electropneumatic Valve Actuator

for Internal Combustion Engines
Jia Ma
Delphi Powertrain Systems, This paper presents a detailed model of a novel electropneumatic valve actuator for both

Auburn Hill, MI 48326
e-mail: jia.ma@delphi.com
Guoming G. Zhu
e-mail: zhug@egr.msu.edu
Harold Schock
e-mail: schock@egr.msu.edu
Michigan State University,
East Lansing, MI 48824
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engine intake and exhaust valves. The valve actuator’s main function is to provide vari-
able valve timing and variable lift capabilities in an internal combustion engine. The
pneumatic actuation is used to open the valve and the hydraulic latch mechanism is used
to hold the valve open and to reduce valve seating velocity. This combination of pneu-
matic and hydraulic mechanisms allows the system to operate under low pressure with an
energy saving mode. It extracts the full pneumatic energy to open the valve and use the
hydraulic latch that consumes almost no energy to hold the valve open. A system dynam-
ics analysis is provided and followed by mathematical modeling. This dynamic model is
based on Newton’s law, mass conservation, and thermodynamic principles. The air com-
pressibility and liquid compressibility in the hydraulic latch are modeled, and the dis-
continuous nonlinearity of the compressible flow due to choking is carefully considered.
Provision is made for the nonlinear motion of the mechanical components due to the
physical constraints. Validation experiments were performed on a Ford 4.6 l four-valve
V8 engine head with different air supply pressures and different solenoid pulse inputs.
The simulation responses agreed with the experimental results at different engine speeds
and supply air pressures. 关DOI: 10.1115/1.4000816兴

Keywords: automotive systems, powertrain systems, camless valve actuation, hydraulic

and pneumatic system model

1 Introduction
In a camless valvetrain, the motion of each valve is controlled
by an independent actuator. There is no camshaft or other mecha-
nisms coupling the valve to the crankshaft as in a conventional
valvetrain. This provides the possibility to control the valve
events, i.e., timing, lift, and duration, independent of crankshaft
rotational angle. Various studies have shown that an engine with
variable valve actuation reduces pumping losses, adjusts the
cycle-to-cycle internal residual gas recirculation 共RGR兲, and re-
duces nitrogen oxide 共NOx兲 emissions with improved perfor-
mance over a wide operating range.
A significant amount of research has been contributed to dem-
onstrate the advantage of variable valve actuation 共VVA兲 over the
traditional cam-based valvetrain for both gasoline and diesel en-
gines. The investigation of intake valve timing control of a spark
ignited 共SI兲 engine was conducted in Ref. 关1兴. It was found that at
low and partial load conditions, engine pumping loss was reduced
by 20–80% due to throttless operation. Fuel consumption was
improved up to 10% at idle. Through simulation and experiments,
Negurescu et al. 关2兴 showed that SI engine efficiency can be im-
proved up to 29% due to variable valve timing 共VVT兲, compared
with a classic throttled engine. The engine torque output was also
improved by up to 8% at low speed with wide open throttle.
Research carried out in Ref. 关3兴 demonstrated how VVT and
variable valve lift 共VVL兲 affect the partial load fuel economy of a
light-duty diesel engine. In this study, the indicated and brake-
specific fuel consumptions were improved up to 6% and 19%,
respectively. The operation of an Otto–Atkinson cycle engine by
late intake valve closing to have a larger expansion ratio than
compression ratio was studied in Ref. 关4兴. A significant reduction
Contributed by the Dynamic Systems Division of ASME for publication in the
JOURNAL OF DYNAMIC SYSTEMS, MEASUREMENT, AND CONTROL. Manuscript received
November 15, 2008; final manuscript received November 20, 2009; published online
February 3, 2010. Assoc. Editor: Bin Yao.
of carbon monoxide 共CO兲 and NOx emissions was obtained. Urata
et al. 关5兴 also showed that the operational range of a homoge-
neously charged compression ignition 共HCCI兲 engine can be ex-
panded to both high and low load ranges through the adoption of
VVT and VVL. The advantages of VVT and VVL engines lead to
combustion optimization over a broad engine operational range.
For example, Trask et al. 关6兴 developed the VVT and VVL opti-
mization methodologies for an I4 2.0 l camless ZETEC engine at
various operational conditions including cold starts, cylinder de-
activation, full load, idle, and transient operations.
Three primary types of camless valve actuators are electromag-
netic, hydraulic, and pneumatic actuators. Sugimoto et al. 关7兴,
Theobald et al. 关8兴, and Pischinger and Kreuter 关9兴 presented the
results of electromagnetic actuators. A hydraulic actuator was dis-
cussed in Ref. 关10兴. A pneumatic actuator incorporated with a
permanent magnet control latch was presented in Ref. 关11兴. The
advantages and disadvantages of a pneumatic actuator over a hy-
draulic actuator were addressed in Ref. 关12兴, where a pneumatic
valve actuator with a physical motion stopper was presented and
the simulations of the valve actuation system were shown. Imple-
mentation of various camless valve actuators was studied in 关13兴.
In order to provide an insight to the pneumatic actuator design
and its control requirements, mathematical modeling was per-
formed to the engine and its various actuation systems. A variable
valve timing engine was modeled in Ref. 关14兴, along with its
engine control strategy. Tessler et al. 关15兴 analyzed and modeled
the dynamics of a pneumatic system consisting of a double-acting
or single-acting cylinder and servo valve. A mathematical model
of a pneumatic force actuator was presented in Ref. 关16兴.
In this article, an electropneumatic valve actuator 共EPVA兲 is
employed to replace the traditional camshaft in an internal com-
bustion engine. The EPVA is capable of varying valve lift, timing,
and opening duration as desired in a variable valve timing engine.
Different from the pneumatic valve discussed in Ref. 关12兴, the
EPVA is designed to extract the maximum work from the air flow
by incorporating a hydraulic latch mechanism to hold valve open

Journal of Dynamic Systems, Measurement, and Control MARCH 2010, Vol. 132 / 021007-1
Copyright © 2010 by ASME

Fig. 1 System dynamics at the air charging stage
and to reduce the power consumption; a hydraulic damper mecha-
nism is also enabled to produce a desirable slow and smooth seat-
ing velocity when the valve returns to its seat. It has been shown
that less than 4 kW power was required at 6000 rpm to run a 16
valve 2 l turbocharged four-cylinder engine 关17兴. This is well in
line with the electromagnetic valve systems and well below the
hydraulic ones. Nonlinear mathematical model was developed in
this paper to help establish the design and control criteria and to
be used as a base to develop a control oriented model required for
model-based control strategy development.
This paper is organized as follows. System dynamics is de-
scribed in Sec. 2, and a mathematical model is developed compo-
nent by component in Sec. 3. The experimental validation of the
developed model is provided in Sec. 4. Finally, conclusions are
drawn in Sec. 5.
2 System Dynamics
The EPVA consists of two solenoids, two spool valves, two port
valves, an actuator piston, an actuator cylinder, and a hydraulic
latch-damper system. An actuator piston pushes the back of the
engine poppet valve stem, causing the valve to open. Solenoid-
controlled spool valves are used to control the flow of the air that
enters and exits the actuator cylinder. In order to reduce the en-
ergy consumption, EPVA uses a hydraulic latch, which allows the
actuator to extract the full expansion work out of the air that is
drawn into the actuator cylinder. Meanwhile, the actuator is still
capable of holding the valve open over the desired opening dura-
tion. A hydraulic damping mechanism is added to provide a soft
seating velocity for the valve. According to the events taking
place in the actuator cylinder, the system dynamics are divided
into three stages: air charging, expansion and dwell, and air dis-
charging stages. Figure 6 illustrates three stages over the valve lift
profile.
2.1 Air Charging Stage. Figure 1 depicts the system dynam-
ics when the actuator cylinder is operated at the air charging stage.
The light gray color represents the high pressure 共supply pressure兲
air, the white color represents the low pressure 共atmospheric pres-
sure兲 air, and the dark gray color represents the oil in the hydraulic
latch damper. S1 and S2 are two on and off valves controlled by
solenoids 1 and 2 through their mechanical linkages to the corre-
sponding spool valves 1 and 2, respectively. Each controlled on
and off valve is parallel to a check valve, see Fig. 1. When a
solenoid is energized, its corresponding on and off valve is closed,
and when the solenoid is deactivated, the on and off valve is tune
on to allow two-way flow. An energized solenoid is shown in
black while a de-energized one is transparent.
During the charging stage, solenoid 1 is energized pushing the
spool valve 1 slightly to the right. As a result, the high pressure air
is sent to two locations, the left of the outlet port valve and the
right of the inlet port valve. The left side of the inlet port valve is
subject to the low pressure. Therefore, the high pressure air closes
the outlet port valve and opens the inlet port valve. The supply air
021007-2 / Vol. 132, MARCH 2010
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Fig. 2 System dynamics at the expansion and dwell stage
now charges the cylinder, the actuator piston starts moving down
and opens the poppet valve. Although the right side of the outlet
port valve is subject to the high pressure air, it remains closed due
to the area difference between the two sides of the port valve. The
on and off valve S1 is deactivated at the moment when solenoid 1
is energized. This only allows the oil to flow down through the
check valve parallel to S1 and prevents the oil from returning to
the reservoir. Note that the oil supply pressure is the same as the
air supply pressure.
2.2 Expansion and Dwell Stage. In the expansion and dwell
stage as shown in Fig. 2, both solenoids 1 and 2 are energized.
The time delay between the activation of two solenoids is usually
chosen between 2 ms and 5 ms depending on the desired valve lift
height. The spool valve 2 is pushed slightly to the left so that the
high pressure air can be sent to the left of the inlet port valve
through the same spool valve. The on and off valve S2 is closed at
the same time when solenoid 2 is energized to prevent the high
pressure air from escaping to the atmosphere through the first
spool valve. The inlet port valve is closed mainly due to the spring
force applied on the inlet port valve, which cuts off the air supply
to the piston cylinder. Meanwhile, solenoid 1 remains energized;
therefore, the outlet port valve remains closed. The air that was
drawn into the actuator cylinder during the previous 共air charging兲
stage is able to expand completely. The actuator piston and poppet
valve both reach their maximum displacement. The high pressure
oil 共dark gray兲 trapped in the hydraulic latch 共on and off valve S2
remains closed兲 balances the valve spring force and keeps the
poppet valve open at its maximum lift height. This is called the
energy saving mode. It allows the system to extract the full ex-
pansion work from the air, which has entered the cylinder without
losing the capability of varying the valve open duration.
2.3 Air Discharging Stage. In the air discharging stage, the
air leaves the actuator cylinder and the valve returns to its seat. As
displayed in Fig. 3, both solenoids are de-energized. Conse-
Fig. 3 System dynamics at the air discharging stage
Transactions of the ASME

Fig. 4 Actuator piston model
quently, both on and off valves, S1 and S2, are activated.
Both air and the oil flows are able to travel in two directions.
Since both solenoids are off, the springs inside the two spool
valves return the spools to their original positions. The high pres-
sure air is then sent to both sides of the inlet port valve. The port
valve remains closed mainly due to the spring force. Meanwhile,
the low pressure air is applied on both sides of the outlet port
valve. Since the oil in the hydraulic latch is now able to flow back
up to its reservoir, the actuator piston returns to its rest position
due to the valve spring force. The spring force pushes the actuator
piston as well as the poppet valve back and the volume of the air
in the actuator cylinder is then reduced. This results in an increase
in the air pressure in the actuator cylinder and an increase in the
air pressure at the right side of the outlet port valve. Therefore, the
outlet port valve is pushed open, the air in the actuator cylinder is
able to discharge, and its pressure decreases immediately. The
poppet valve continues on its return course. The hydraulic damper
activates when the poppet valve moves close to its seat. Due to the
decreasing flow area where the oil leaves the passage, the velocity
of the valve is reduced greatly, providing a smooth return.
3 Mathematical Modeling
The purpose of this section is to derive governing equations of
the individual components of the pneumatic-hydraulic valve ac-
tuator, which consists of the actuator piston, the hydraulic latch
damper, the inlet and outlet port valves, two solenoids, and two
spool valves, as displayed in Fig. 1. These equations were used to
model the behavior of the valve under different sets of operating
conditions.
3.1 Actuator Piston. In this subsection, energy conservation,
mass conservation, and Newton’s second law were used to deter-
mine the following variables: the rate change of the gas pressure
inside of the cylinder chamber Ṗ p, the rate change of the gas
density ␳˙ p, and the acceleration of the actuator piston ÿ, see Fig. 4.
A sudden reduction in pressure occurs at the inlet port when it
opens. This causes the air flow to expand in an explosive fashion.
The flow is choked and the pressure at the port is assumed to be
Journal of Dynamic Systems, Measurement, and Control
constant. The difference between the cylinder pressure and the
supply pressure decreases as the pressure in the cylinder chamber
builds up over time. The air then becomes unchoked and flows
through the inlet with decreasing pressure. The flow exiting the
outlet switches between a choked and an unchoked pattern as well
for the same reason. This discontinuous nonlinearity of the flow
has to be taken into consideration in the actuator piston model.
As shown in Fig. 4, considering the control volume above the
actuator piston in the cylinder chamber including the inlet and
outlet, the first law of thermodynamics can be written as
冉 冊 冉 vi2 v2e
冊 ⳵E
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Q̇ − Ẇ + ṁi hi + − ṁe he + = 共1兲
2 2 ⳵t
where Q̇ and Ẇ are the heat transfer rates into the control volume
and the work rate delivered by the control volume to the actuator
piston, respectively; ṁi and ṁe are the mass flow rates entering
and exiting the control volume; ḣi and ḣe are the enthalpies of the
gas entering and exiting the cylinder chamber; and finally, ⳵E / ⳵t
is the rate of change of the control volume total energy.
The rate of the work done Ẇ on the actuator piston by the
control volume is
Ẇ = A p P pẏ 共2兲
where A p is the area of the actuator piston, P p is the pressure of
the control volume 共the pressure applied on the actuator piston兲,
and ẏ is the velocity of the actuator piston movement.
The supply air entering the cylinder chamber from the inlet can
be viewed as a gas from a reservoir. The gas in the reservoir has
zero velocity; therefore, its enthalpy is the stagnation enthalpy of
the inlet supply air hin. Modeling the air leaving the cylinder
chamber is simplified by considering the case that the pressure is
balanced and the dynamics during the pressure balancing is ig-
nored. In this case, the air leaving the cylinder chamber from the
outlet can be viewed as a gas leaving a reservoir, which is the
control volume inside the chamber. Hence, the enthalpy of the air
leaving the chamber can be represented by the stagnation enthalpy
of the air in the actuator cylinder h p:
vi2
hi + = hin = C pTin 共3兲
2
v2e
he + = h p = C pT p 共4兲
2
Treating air as an ideal gas leads to
P p = ␳ pRT p 共5兲
Replacing T p in Eq. 共4兲 by P p / R␳ p results in
v2e C p P p
he + = 共6兲
2 R␳ p
where Tin and C p are the temperature of the air at the inlet, which
equals to the ambient temperature Tatm = 295 K, and the specific
heat of the air at constant pressure, respectively; R and ␳ p are the
gas constants of the air and the density of the air in the cylinder
chamber above the actuator piston; and P p and T p are the pressure
and temperature of the air in the cylinder chamber above the ac-
tuator piston.
In order to derive the equations for the mass flow rate when the
air flow enters the inlet or leaves the outlet, two cases are consid-
ered, and they are choked and unchoked gas flows. The proof of
the derivation of the mass flow equation is shown in Ref. 关15兴.
The following are the two main assumptions: 共a兲 the gas flow in
the valve actuator is adiabatic 共Q̇ = 0兲 and 共b兲 the flow is isentropic
everywhere except across normal shock waves. Also a term pro-
portional to Ẇ is subtracted from the total power that is delivered
MARCH 2010, Vol. 132 / 021007-3
to the actuator piston to compensate the heat loss 关16兴.
The flow pattern at the inlet depends on the cylinder pressure
P p and the supply pressure Psupply. Applying the compressible
Ṗ p =
1
A py
冋
CdinAin共w兲Psupply␥in冑k3RTin − CdoutAout共z兲␥out 冑 册k3 P3p
␳p
flow equation yields the expression for the mass flow rate at inlet P pẏ
ṁi as follows: − ␣ pk 共18兲
y

ṁi = ␥in 冑 k
RTin
PsupplyAin 共7兲
where Cdin and Cdout are the flow discharge coefficients at the inlet
and outlet, respectively; ␣ p is multiplied by the rate change of
work Ẇ as it is assumed that part of the work is dissipated as heat
For the unchoked case, where P p ⬎ 0.53Psupply based on the re-
sults from Refs. 关15,16兴, loss from the system. Parameter ␣ p is chosen to be between 0 and
1 depending on the actual heat loss during the process. This for-

冑 冉 冊 冋冉 冊 册

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2 Pp k+1/2k
Pp 1−k/k 1/2 mulation is studied in Ref. 关16兴.
␥in = −1 共8兲 Applying the law of mass conservation to the control volume
k − 1 Psupply Psupply above the actuator piston in the cylinder results in
and for the choked case, where P p ⱕ 0.53Psupply,
ṁi − ṁe = A p共␳ pẏ + ␳˙ py兲 共19兲
␥in = 0.58 共9兲 Replacing ṁi and ṁe by Eqs. 共7兲 and 共11兲 leads to the expression
Note that k = C p / Cv is the specific heat ratio, where Cv is the for ␳˙ p,
specific heat of air at constant volume. Ain is the area of the inlet.
Since the port valves open and close at a very fast rate, the effec-
tive flow area Ain is approximated by
␳˙ p =
1
A py
冋
CdinAin共w兲Psupply␥in 冑 k
RTin
− CdoutAout共z兲␥out冑kP p␳ p 册
Ain = 再 ␲r21 , w ⬎ 0
0, w = 0
, 冎 共10兲 −
␳ pẏ
y
Now the acceleration of the actuator piston ÿ can be obtained by
共20兲

where r1 is the inner radius of the inlet port valve and w is the
applying Newton’s second law, see below:
displacement of the inlet port valve, see Fig. 7. The mass flow rate
ṁe equation can be derived as follows: Mÿ + C f ẏ + K p共y + ␦ p兲 = A p P p + AcapPoil − 共A p − Acap兲Patm

ṁe = ␥out 冑 k
RT p
P pAout 共11兲
1
M = M piston + M valve + 3 M spring + M cap
where M piston, M valve, M spring, and M cap are the mass of the actua-
共21兲

For the unchoked case, where Pout ⬎ 0.53P p, tor piston, intake valve, valve spring 共the effective spring mass

冑 冉 冊 冋冉 冊 册
equals one-third of the total spring mass, see Ref. 关18兴兲, and the
共k+1兲/2k 共1−k兲/k 1/2
2 Pout Pout cap on the top of the valve stem; Acap is the area of the cap on the
␥out = −1 共12兲
k − 1 Pp Pp top of the actuator piston stem; A p = ␲r2p − ␲r2oil is the actuator pis-
ton area, where r p and roil are the radius of the actuator piston and
and for the choked case, where Pout ⱕ 0.53P p,
oil passage; C f is the damping coefficient approximating the en-
␥out = 0.58 共13兲 ergy dissipation due to the friction; and finally K p and ␦ p are the
stiffness and preload of the valve spring.
Here, Aout is the area of the outlet. It follows the same expression Rearranging Eq. 共21兲 results in
as Ain except that it is dependent on z. The Aout expression can be
approximated as follows: 1

再 冎
ÿ = 关A p P p + AoilPoil − 共A p + Aoil兲Patm − C f ẏ − K p共y + ␦ p兲兴
M
␲r22, z⬎0
Aout = 共14兲 共22兲
0, z=0
Note that for exhaust valves, there is an additional force F p due to
where r2 is the outer radius of the outlet port valve and z is the in-cylinder pressure:
displacement of the outlet port valve, see Fig. 8.
The rate change of the total energy of the control volume is the F p = AexhPcyl 共23兲
summation of the rate change of the internal energy, the kinetic where Aexh is the area of the exhaust valve and Pcyl is the in-
energy and the potential energy. The kinetic and potential energies cylinder pressure. Incorporating F p into Eq. 共22兲, the acceleration
of the control volume are negligible. Hence, the rate change of the
of the actuator piston ÿ becomes
total energy is approximated as the rate of change of the internal
energy, that is, 1
ÿ = 关A p P p + AoilPoil − F p − 共A p + Aoil兲Patm − C f ẏ − K p共y + ␦ p兲兴
⳵E ⳵U d M
= = 共mCvT p兲 共15兲 共24兲
⳵t ⳵ t dt
where m is the mass of air inside the control volume and Cv is the 3.2 Hydraulic Latch and Damper. Another mechanism that
specific heat of air at a constant volume. The expression for ṁ is has a direct impact on the dynamics of the actuator piston is the
hydraulic latch damper. The compressibility of the fluid in the
ṁ = ␳ pA pẏ 共16兲 hydraulic latch is considered and the mechanism of adjusting the
Expanding Eq. 共15兲 and using Eqs. 共16兲 and 共5兲 result in valve seating velocity is modeled in detail.
Figure 5 illustrates the hydraulic latch function. The oil sits on
⳵ E A pC v the top of the actuator piston stem with the same supply pressure
= 共P pẏ + Ṗ py兲 共17兲
⳵t R as the air pressure. Fluid enters or exits through area Aoilin / Aoilout.
When the air, drawn in during the air charging stage, is fully
The expression for Ṗ p can be derived by substituting Eqs. 共2兲, 共3兲, expanded in the actuator cylinder, the actuator piston reaches to its
共6兲, 共7兲, 共11兲, and 共17兲 into Eq. 共1兲. That is, maximum displacement. The on and off valve S1 is closed due to

021007-4 / Vol. 132, MARCH 2010 Transactions of the ASME


Fig. 5 Hydraulic latch/damper model
activating solenoid 1 to prevent the oil from returning, recalling
system dynamics at the air charge, expansion and dwell stages.
The pressurized oil is trapped in the passage and keeps the actua-
tor piston at the maximum displacement until solenoid 1 is turned
off, see Sec. 2.3. Hence, this hydraulic latch provides a holding
force to keep the valve opening. Another function of this mecha-
nism is to provide a low seating velocity for the valve. When the
actuator piston approaches the original position, the cap on the top
of the stem will partially block the exit area A. The actuator piston
encounters a large resistant force due to the reduced flow area,
which decreases the air flow velocity tremendously. The resistant
force increases as the exit area reduces.
Figure 6 shows a valve lift profile along with the solenoid ac-
tion chart. The solenoid itself has about 2–3 ms electromagnetic
delay upon activation. These delays were not shown in this chart.
As was explained earlier, one valve cycle consists of three stages:
air charging, expansion and dwell, and air discharging stage. So-
Fig. 6 Valve lift profile with the solenoid action chart
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lenoid 1 is turned on at the beginning of air charging stage and
turned off at the end of expansion and dwell stage. Solenoid 2 is
turned on before expansion and dwell stage. Solenoid 2 operates
at the same frequency and duty cycle as these of solenoid 1 with
a time delay. Both inlet and outlet are closed during the overlap of
solenoids 1 and 2. The oil is modeled as an incompressible flow at
air charge and discharge stages due to relatively low oil pressure,
while in the dwelling region, it is modeled as a slightly compress-
ible flow under high oil pressure. The slight compressibility is
what causes the volume change of the oil in the passage, hence the
swing on the top of the valve lift profile.
Apply the incompressible flow model at air charging stage to
calculate the flow rate through the oil passage as follows:
冑
Psupply − Poil
qoil = CdoilinAoilin = Acapoilẏ 共25兲
␳oil
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Fig. 7 Inlet port valve model
Fig. 8 Outlet port valve model

Therefore, the pressure of the oil at air charging stage is

冉 冊
2
Acapẏ
Poil = Psupply − ␳oil
CdoilinAoilin
where qoil and Cdoilin are the volumetric flow rate of the fluid and
the discharge coefficient as the fluid enters the passage, respec-
tively; Aoilin and ␳oil are the area where the fluid enters the passage
共it will be calculated later兲 and the density of the fluid; Psupply and
Poil are the supply and oil pressures, where Psupply = Poil.
Apply the compressible flow model at expansion and dwell
stages to derive the oil pressure. The state equation PVc = K
= const is used here by choosing c large enough to represent the
high level of incompressibility:
PoillockVc = PiVic
Note that Eq. 共27兲 is true only for an isothermal process. Substi-
tuting V = Acapy and Vi = Acapy i into Eq. 共27兲 to obtain
Piy ic
Poillock =
yc
where Poillock is the pressure of the oil at the expansion and dwell
共lock兲 stages, y i is the maximum valve displacement, Vi is the
volume of the fluid at y i, and Pi is the oil pressure Poil at y i.
Similarly, the equation of motion at air charging stage was ob-
tained using the incompressible flow model as follows:
air flow from the spool valve with pressure PcupR and the supply
pressure Psupply. Pressure PcupR alternates between atmosphere and
共26兲 supply pressure, which is regulated by the spool valve.
The port valve remains closed when PcupR equals Psupply due to
the spring force and the valve opens when PcupR decreases to the
atmosphere pressure. The supply air is treated as a stagnant flow
with constant pressure. The equation of motion can be obtained
using Newton’s second law:
mcRẅ + CcRẇ + KcRw = 共Psupply − PcupR兲AcR 共32兲
where 0 ⱕ w ⱕ wmax and AcR = ␲r22.
r2 is the outer radius of the
inlet and outlet port valve 共see Fig. 4兲. Variables mcR and CcR are
the mass of the inlet port valve and the damping coefficient com-
共27兲 pensating for the friction loss of the valve, and KcR is the spring
constant. Parameters w, ẇ, and ẅ are the displacement, the veloc-
ity, and the acceleration of the inlet port valve; and wmax is the
maximum distance, which the inlet port valve is allowed to travel.
The discontinuous nonlinearity in the port valve dynamics caused
共28兲 by this physical limitation was considered. Rearranging Eq. 共32兲
leads the expression for ẅ,
1
ẅ = 共AinletPsupply − PcupRAcR − CcRẇ − KcRw兲 共33兲
mcR
3.4 Outlet Port Valve. The outlet port valve functions in a

冑
similar way to the inlet port valve, except that the air that pushes
Poil − Psupply the port valve open is with the actuator cylinder pressure. The
qoil = Cd_oiloutAoilout = Acapẏ 共29兲
␳oil pressure in the actuator cylinder is unsteady; thus, the flow dy-
Rearranging Eq. 共29兲 results in namic behavior is modeled. The modeling process is similar to the

冉 冊
actuator piston. The control volume used here is shown in Fig. 8.
2
Acapẏ Applying conservation of energy as shown in Eq. 共1兲, we evalu-
Poil = Psupply + ␳oil 共30兲
Cd_oiloutAoilout ate Ẇ, ⳵E / ⳵t, hi + 共v2i / 2兲, ṁi, he + 共v2e / 2兲, and ṁe as follows:
where Cd_oilout is the discharge coefficient as the fluid exits the
Ẇ = AcL Poutż and AcL = ␲r22 共34兲
passage and Aoilout is the area where the fluid exits the passage
Aoilin = Aoilout = A, where where Pout is the pressure on the outlet port valve in the control
volume. Then,

冦 冧
2␲rpass
2
+ 共Aoil − Acap兲, y ⱕ p1
A=
2␲冉冊
y
2
2
+ 共Aoil − Acap兲, y ⬎ p1
共31兲 ⳵E ⳵U d
⳵t
= = 共mCvTout兲 =
⳵ t dt
AcLCv
R
共Poutẏ + Ṗouty兲 共35兲

The variables rpass, Aoil, Acap, and p1 are shown in Fig. 6. The
seating velocity is greatly reduced when the stem enters the area
where y ⬍ p1. By adjusting p1 during the hydraulic latch design
process, the slope of the response can be altered by adjusting the
timing of entering the region where y ⬍ p1.
where z is the displacement of the outlet port valve, Tout is the gas
temperature in the control volume, and Pout is the gas pressure in
the control volume. The ideal gas law, Eq. 共5兲, is used to derive
Eq. 共35兲. Treating the air flow from the actuator cylinder as stag-
nant flow leads to

3.3 Inlet Port Valve. As illustrated in Fig. 7, the inlet port vi2 CpPp
hi + = h p = C pT p = 共36兲
valve is modeled as a mass-spring-damper system driven by the 2 ␳ pR

021007-6 / Vol. 132, MARCH 2010 Transactions of the ASME

 Fig. 9 Spool valve model

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ṁi = ␥inL 冑 k
RT p
P pAout = Aout␥inL冑k␳ p P p 共37兲
ṁi − ṁe = AcL共␳outż + ␳outz兲
Substituting ṁi using Eq. 共37兲 and ṁe using Eq. 共42兲 into the
共47兲

where Aout is the inlet area of the control volume. Similar to the equation above, ␳˙ out can be written as below:
evaluation of Ain in Eq. 共14兲, the equivalent Aout can be approxi-
关CdinLAout共z兲␥inL冑k␳ p P p − CdoutLAL共z兲␥outL冑kPout␳out兴
1
␳˙ out =

再 冎
mated by the following equation:
AcLz
␲r22, z⬎0
Aout = 共38兲 ␳outż
0, z=0 − 共48兲
z
Similar to the actuator piston modeling in Sec. 3.1, for the un-
choked case, where Pout ⬎ 0.53P p, Finally, Newton’s second law yields the equation of motion for

冑 冉 冊 冋冉 冊 册
the outlet port valve,
共k+1兲/2k 共1−k兲/k 1/2
2 Pout Pout
␥inL = −1 共39兲 mcLz̈ + CcLż + KcLz = PoutAoutlet − PcupLAcL 共49兲
k − 1 Pp Pp
where 0 ⱕ z ⱕ zmax, Aoutlet = ␲r21,
and AcL = ␲r22.
Parameters mcL and
and for the choked case where Pout ⱕ 0.53P p,
CcL are the masses of the outlet port valve and the damping coef-
␥inL = 0.58 共40兲 ficient compensating for the friction loss of the valve, respec-
Treating ambient air as stagnant flow results in tively, and KcL is the spring constant. Parameters z, ż, and z̈ are the
displacement, the velocity, and the acceleration of the outlet port
v2e valve, and zmax is the maximum distance, which the outlet port
he + = hatm = C pTatm 共41兲 valve is allowed to travel. The discontinuous nonlinearity in the
2
port valve dynamics was considered in the simulation. Rearrang-

ṁe = ␥outL 冑 k
RTout
PoutAL = AL␥outL冑k␳outPout 共42兲
ing Eq. 共49兲 to obtain an expression for z̈ results in
1
z̈ = 共AoutletPout − PcupLAcL − CcLż − KcLz兲 共50兲
where Tout is the temperature of the gas in the control volume, Pout mcL
is the inlet air pressure of the control volume, ␳out is the density in All the discharge coefficients that are involved in the flow equa-
the control volume, and AL is the outlet area of the control volume tions were determined numerically and experimentally.
and also a function of geometry and the displacement of the outlet
port valve, where 3.5 Spool Valve. The armature of the solenoid pushes the
stem of the spool valve with the magnetic force Fs when the
A L = 2 ␲ r 1z 共43兲
solenoid is energized and a precompressed spring returns the
If Patm ⬎ 0.53Pout, for the unchoked case, spool valve when the solenoid is de-energized.

冑 冉 冊 冋冉 冊 册
共k+1兲/2k 共1−k兲/k 1/2 The spool valve is pressure balanced at two ends, as shown in
2 Patm Patm Fig. 9. The spool valve equation of motion is
␥outL = −1 共44兲
k − 1 Pout Pout
mspoolẍ + Csẋ + Ks共x + ␦s兲 = Fs, 0 ⬍ x ⬍ x0 共51兲
and if Pout ⱕ 0.53P p, for the choked case
where mspool is the mass of the spool valve, Cs is the damping
␥outL = 0.58 共45兲 coefficient used to model the frictional loss, and Ks and ␦s are the
Here, the gas was assumed ideal and the nonlinearity of the flow stiffness and preload of the spring, respectively.
was considered in Eqs. 共39兲, 共40兲, 共44兲, and 共45兲. One can obtain
3.6 Solenoid Model. A solenoid can be modeled as a resis-
Ṗout in the following form by substituting Eqs. 共34兲–共45兲 into Eq. tance and inductance 共RL兲 circuit, as shown in Fig. 10. Note that
共1兲 and letting Q̇ = ␣LẆ as it was treated in the actuator piston when a peak and hold drive circuit is used, Vin becomes a function
model. Then of time when the solenoid is activated. The relationship between

Ṗout =
1
AcLz
冋 CdinLAout共z兲P p␥inLkP p 冑 k Pp
␳p
the current i in the coil and the magnetic force Fs on the armature
is assumed to take the following form:

册
bi2
Fs = L 共52兲
x
− CdoutLAL共z兲␥outLRkTatm冑k␳outPout
Poutż
− ␣ Lk 共46兲 1+
z a
where ␣L is a number between 0 and 1 depending on heat loss, where x is the displacement of solenoid actuator, see Fig. 10.
and CdinL and CdoutL are the discharge coefficients. Applying mass Coefficients a and b are chosen by curve fitting the empirical data
conservation law to the control volume results in provided by the manufacture.

Journal of Dynamic Systems, Measurement, and Control MARCH 2010, Vol. 132 / 021007-7
 4 Simulations and Experiments
4.1 Experiment Setup. A Ford 4.6 l four-valve V8 engine
head was used for the valve test. The camshaft was removed from
the intake valve side and an EPVA was installed above one of the
intake valves. A Micro-Epsilon point range laser sensor was used
to measure the intake valve displacement. The laser sensor was
mounted on an angle such that the laser beam from the emitter of
the laser sensor would be perpendicular to the surface of the end
of the valve stem. A dSPACE PCI board was used for both control
and data acquisition. A low side switch drive circuit, made from
two insulated gate bipolar transistors 共IGBTs兲, was used as a

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driver circuit for both solenoids. Two STP2416-015 small push-
pull solenoids were used to drive two spool valves in the EPVA.
The experiments were conducted under the combinations of
Fig. 10 Solenoid model various control parameters, where two supply pressures 共30 psi
and 40 psi兲 were used; three solenoid periods, 100 ms, 40 ms, and
24 ms, 共corresponding to engine speed at 1200 rpm, 3000 rpm,
and 5000 rpm兲 were selected and two solenoid duty cycles 共30%
and 25%兲 were applied. The delay between the first and second
Table 1 Test matrix
solenoids was selected to be 3 ms and 5 ms.
Psupply Period Duty Delay Table 1 lists all 18 experiments conducted. The valve responses
Test No. 共psi兲 共ms兲 共%兲 共ms兲 were compared with the simulation responses in Sec. 4.2. The
EPVA is aimed to tailor the engine intake flow without throttling.
1 30 100 30 3 Therefore, in the experiments and simulations, the engine intake
2 30 100 30 5 manifold pressure is considered to be close to the atmospheric
3 30 40 30 3
pressure. No pressure loads are included on the valve head 共F p
4 30 40 30 5
5 30 24 30 3 = 0兲. In future studies where the exhaust valve dynamics are in-
6 30 24 30 5 vestigated, the valve will have to open against a high engine cyl-
7 40 100 30 3 inder pressure. This model can be expended to perform the ex-
8 40 100 30 5 haust valve simulation, see Eq. 共24兲.
9 40 100 25 3
10 40 100 25 5 4.2 Simulation Results. The equations of motion derived
11 40 40 30 3 previously were written in state space form and programed in
12 40 40 30 5 MATLAB/SIMULINK. The simulations were performed under the
13 40 40 25 3 same parameter sets as these used in experiments. Eighteen ex-
14 40 40 25 5
15 40 24 30 3
perimental and simulation responses of the valve displacement are
16 40 24 30 5 presented in Figs. 11–13 for all 18 tests. The dashed lines repre-
17 40 24 25 3 sent the experimental responses and the solid lines represent the
18 40 24 25 5 simulation responses.

Fig. 11 Plots with 30 psi supply pressure and 30% duty cycle

021007-8 / Vol. 132, MARCH 2010 Transactions of the ASME

 Downloaded from http://asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/dynamicsystems/article-pdf/132/2/021007/5781310/021007_1.pdf by Indian Institute of Technology- Kharagpur user on 12 March 2024
Fig. 12 Plots with 40 psi supply pressure and 30% duty cycle

Figure 11 compares the experimental and simulation responses
with 30 psi supply pressure. The top two graphs of Fig. 11 display
the responses of 30% solenoid duty cycle at 100 ms period with 3
ms 共test 1兲 and 5 ms 共test 2兲 delay between two solenoids. Note
that the 100 ms solenoid period corresponds to the engine speed at
1200 rpm. The response with 5 ms delay 共test 2兲 had about 6 ms
rising time, and the response with 3 ms delay 共test 1兲 had about 5
ms rising time. The maximum valve lift height was 6 mm for the
response with 5 ms delay 共test 2兲 and 3.8 mm for the response
with 3 ms delay 共test 1兲. The swing motion on the top of the
profile indicates that the valve is in the dwell stage when the
hydraulic latch is utilized to hold the valve open. The slight com-
pressibility of the oil in the hydraulic latch causes a few oscilla-
tions of the valve responses. The hydraulic damper is engaged
when the valve is roughly 1 mm away from its seat 共which can be
adjusted by adjusting the actuator piston stem clearance兲, where
the slope of the response is largely decreased. The valve ap-
proaches to the original position gradually afterwards.
The responses in the middle two graphs of Fig. 11 were ob-
tained under the same operating conditions as those on the top
graphs except that the solenoid period was reduced to 40 ms 共cor-
responding to 3000 rpm兲. The rising times of the responses with 5

Fig. 13 Plots with 40 psi supply pressure and 25% duty cycle

Journal of Dynamic Systems, Measurement, and Control MARCH 2010, Vol. 132 / 021007-9
ms 共test 4兲 and 3 ms 共test 3兲 delay between two solenoids were 6
ms and 5 ms. As the solenoid period was reduced, the dwell stage
was shorter. The maximum valve lift height was 6 mm for the
response with 5 ms delay 共test 4兲 and 4 mm for the response with
3 ms delay 共test 3兲.
The solenoid period was further reduced to 24 ms 共correspond-
ing to 5000 rpm兲. The responses 共tests 5 and 6兲 are shown in the
bottom two graphs of Fig. 11. In this case, the maximum valve lift
was 5 mm and the rising time was 6 ms for the response with 5 ms
delay between two solenoids 共test 6兲; the maximum valve lift was
4 mm and the rising time was 5 ms for the response with 3 ms
delay 共test 5兲. The maximum valve lift height in the 5 ms delay
case was decreased from 6 mm to 5 mm. This happened because
the solenoid was de-energized before the actuator piston can fully
expand to its maximum displacement; the valve started returning
before it reached its maximum lift. Moreover, the valve never
entered the dwelling region in these two cases. The solenoid pe-
riod was so short that the valve entered the air discharging stage
immediately after the air charging stage. Hence, the swing motion
disappeared on the top of the profile.
The experiment and simulation responses at 40 psi supply pres-
sure with 30% and 25% solenoid duty cycles are presented in Fig.
12 and 13, respectively. The rising time of the valve varied from 4
ms to 6 ms. The maximum valve lift was around 8 mm for the
responses with 5 ms delay and 6 mm for the response with 3 ms
delay in this case.
As expected, the valve lift height could be controlled by regu-
lating the supply pressure and/or varying the delay between two
solenoids, and the valve open duration could be controlled by
controlling the activation duration of the solenoid. The mathemati-
cal model was able to capture the dynamics of the EPVA closely.
5 Conclusions
This article presented a dynamic model for an EPVA. This
model is a key element for developing control strategies of the
EPVA for an internal combustion engine. Two solenoids and two
spool valves, a single-acting cylinder, an inlet port valve, an outlet
port valve, a hydraulic latch-damper, and an intake valve with its
valve spring are included in this model. The mathematical model
employs Newton’s law, mass conservation, and principle of ther-
modynamics. The nonlinearity of the flow, incompressibility, and
compressibility of the hydraulic fluid and the nonlinearity of the
motion due to the physical constraint was carefully considered in
the modeling process. The model was implemented in MATLAB/
SIMULINK under different combinations of operation conditions.
Validation experiments were performed on a Ford 4.6 l four-valve
V8 engine head with various air supply pressures, solenoid peri-
ods, solenoid duty cycles, and time delay between two solenoids.
The numerical simulation results were compared and showed ex-
cellent agreement with the experimental data.
021007-10 / Vol. 132, MARCH 2010
Acknowledgment
The authors gratefully acknowledge the support for this work
from the U.S. Department of Energy, National Energy Technology
Laboratory, Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Division,
Samuel Taylor, Project Manager. The authors also like to ac-
knowledge the support from Urban Carlson, Anders Hoglund, and
Mats Hedman of Cargine Engineering. This work was completed
during the Ph.D. study of J. Ma at Michigan State University.
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