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SAE TECHNICAL
PAPER SERIES 2002-01-1105

Analysis of Advantages and of Problems of

Electromechanical Valve Actuators
V. Giglio, B. Iorio and G. Police
Istituto Motori of National Research Council of Italy

A. di Gaeta
Dipartimento di Informatica e Sistemistica – Università di Napoli Federico II

Reprinted From: Variable Valve Actuation 2002

(SP–1692)

SAE 2002 World Congress

Detroit, Michigan
March 4-7, 2002

400 Commonwealth Drive, Warrendale, PA 15096-0001 U.S.A. Tel: (724) 776-4841 Fax: (724) 776-5760
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Analysis of Advantages and of Problems of Electromechanical
Valve Actuators
Dipartimento di Informatica e Sistemistica – Università di Napoli Federico II
Copyright © 2002 Society of Automotive Engineers, Inc.
ABSTRACT
The electromechanical devices proposed in technical
literature are very flexible. However, their working
principle (fixed lift, fixed lifting time and variable valve
events) imposes the use of different strategies, such as
cylinder or port deactivation to enable work at partial
loads. This happens in particular at low loads.
The present paper aims to evaluate the effect of the
design and of the strategies adopted to vary the load
(cylinder or port deactivation etc) on performance and on
pollutant formation of a stoichiometric DISI engine. The
calculations were performed by a commercial one-
dimensional code (Wave produced by Ricardo). This tool
was also used to give inputs to the design of the
electromechanical actuator.
The electromechanical design of the actuator was
carried out with the aid of the code Flux2D produced by
Cedrat. This code allows the complete simulation of
transients and of the electrical losses of the actuator.
The system requirements of performing the first lift at
engine start up and catching in normal operation were
analyzed. In this way a fairly realistic picture of the main
advantages and of the typical problems of
Electromechanical Valve Actuators was outlined.
INTRODUCTION
Stoichiometric Spark Ignition Engines with three-way
catalyst are probably the best solution to accomplish the
increasingly stringent legislation on emission. However,
the level of their specific fuel consumption is no longer
satisfactory in comparison to that of stratified lean spark
ignition engines.
From a fuel economy point of view, one of the major
drawbacks of gasoline engines is the necessity to throttle
at part load in order to reduce the amount of mixture
introduced in the cylinder. Throttling causes a strong
increase of pumping work and a worsening of the
combustion process because of the lower levels of
turbulence inside the combustion chamber.
2002-01-1105
V. Giglio, B. Iorio and G. Police
Istituto Motori of National Research Council of Italy
A. di Gaeta
For stoichiometric engines, an effective way to reduce
pumping work at partial loads is the adoption of a
variable valve actuator to realize throttle free operations.
In this way, stoichiometric engines operated with VVA
become a very interesting alternative to lean stratified
engines.
The devices proposed in the past years to control the
inlet and the outlet phases of four stroke internal
combustion engines can be included in four categories:
• Mechanical
• Electro- hydraulic
• Motor driven
• Electromechanical
The flexibility of the various systems may include: Valve
Timing variation, Valve Lift and Event variation, Single
Port Deactivation, Cylinder and Valve Deactivation.
The mechanical systems have different degrees of
complexity. The simplest ones, the cam phasers (1), vary
only valve timing. Other more complex types can vary
the valve lift in two steps such as Toyota (2) or Porsche
(3). These mechanisms are quite simple and effective
and some of them are already for sale on the market.
Mechanical devices can be much more complex. In fact,
some types can vary valve lift continuously (4,5,6,7).
Electro-hydraulic mechanisms are conceptually quite
simple. They generally have a traditional camshaft that
gives motion to a small cylinder filled with oil (8,9). A
valve, operated by a control system, can discharge the
oil. In this way, it is possible to vary valve lift and
simultaneously valve event. The deactivation of single
ports or cylinders is allowed. Anyway, if electro-hydraulic
mechanisms work with the engine oil used for lubrication,
the response and the precision of these systems may
depend on oil characteristics and temperature.
Small electrical motors based on permanent magnets
were employed to control the valve lift (10). In principle,
the flexibility of this type of mechanism is complete and
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the energy losses seem quite low. However, at present,
they seem at a very early stage of development.
The electromechanical devices proposed by BMW (5)
FEV (11), Siemens (12) and Marelli (13) allow the
variation of timing, valve event, late closure of inlet valve
(practical Atkinson cycle) and cylinder or port
deactivation strategies.
These systems are highly flexible, even if their working
principle (fixed lift, fixed lifting time and variable valve
event) can give some problems in load variation. That
will be discussed later.
The present paper is divided into three parts. First, the
working principle and design requirements of a fixed lift
EVA actuator are examined. Then some details on the
electromechanical design are given. Moreover, the effect
on efficiency and pollutants of the strategies employed to
vary the load is evaluated. Finally, some advantages and
problems of this type of actuator are discussed.
The paper refers to an in progress work being carried out
at Istituto Motori. The activity aims to study a prototype of
an Electromagnetic Valve Actuator (EVA) to be
employed on a DISI engine with reduced CO2 emission.
WORKING PRINCIPLE OF AN EVA ACTUATOR
Electromagnetic Valve Actuators generally have two
magnets and two balanced springs working in parallel
(fig. 1).
Fig. 1 - Schematic diagram of a typical electromagnetic
mechanism for engine valve actuation
The moving part (armature) of EVA is connected to an
engine valve. When the turnkey is in the off position, the
armature is held in the intermediate position between the
coils by the balanced springs.
At engine startup, the upper electromagnet pulls up and
holds the armature. The springs store the mechanical
energy used up for their deformation.
When the upper magnet is deactivated, the elastic
energy is released and the spring-mass system behaves
almost like a harmonic oscillator in free evolution.
The moving part, at a distance of less than one
millimeter, is captured and is held by the lower electro-
magnet. A similar series of events occurs when the
moving part is released and the upper magnet catches it.
Since electromagnets can exert high forces at low
distances, power requirements of the system are quite
low. Energy is used up by the Joule effect and to restore
the losses of potential energy due to friction. Electrical
losses will be evaluated later.
In the mechanism under examination, the valve is lifted
up or down according to a law similar to sine. The rise
time will be indicated in the following as “ t r ”. It
represents half the period of oscillation of a harmonic
oscillator in free evolution. Thus:
T π
tr = = (1)
2 K M
Where M (kg) is the total moving mass, and K (N/m) is
the total stiffness of springs working in parallel.
The sine law can be expressed as:
h MAX é ææ t 1 ö ö ù
h= êsinçç çç − ÷÷ π ÷÷ + 1ú (2)
2 êë è è t r 2 ø ø úû
h MAX is the maximum valve lift. The time t r employed
to lift the moving elements up or down, ideally depends
only on the mechanical characteristic of the system. On
the contrary, the corresponding rise angle θ r depends
also on the angular speed of the engine, in particular:
θ r = 6 N tr (3)
N is the engine speed in rpm.
To have an idea of the effect of the rise time on the
varying load ability of EVA, three lifting times (table 1) will
be considered. They correspond at 6000 rpm to 80, 100
and 120 degrees respectively.
θ r [deg] 120 100 80
t r [ms] 3.33 2.78 2.22
Table 1 - Valve “rise time” and corresponding angle at
6000 rpm
The three lift laws, shown in fig. 2, at 6000 rpm have the
same valve event and the same area as a typical
polynomial automotive cam, with a maximum lift of 9.5
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millimeters. The constancy of the area of the valve lift First of all a hypothesis on vehicle, on driving schedules
diagram has been assumed as a means of obtaining and on the power source was formulated. The main
approximately the same mean flow area for the three characteristics of the vehicle and of the engine are
patterns of fig. 2. shown in table 2 and 3 respectively.

When t r has been fixed, at the same speed the mean

flow area can vary as shown in fig. 3. The minimum flow
area at a given speed corresponds to the pure sine law.
In fig. 4 the diagrams for the minimum flow area are
shown for a given t r and different engine speeds.

It is evident that load variation in absence of throttle can

be critical for a system with fixed valve lift and lifting time.
For example, at 6000 rpm and t r = 3.33 ms it is almost
impossible to vary the load by the variation of valve event
(fig. 2).

Fig. 4 - Lift patterns corresponding to the minimum flow

area at several engine speeds

Mass (kg) 1550

2
Frontal area of vehicle (m ) 2.24
Drag coefficient (Cx) 0.32
Gear ratios (I to V) 3.95-2.19-1.39-1-0.85
Axle gear ratio 3.900
Total mechanical efficiency 0.95
Wheel rotating radius (m) 0.31
Fig. 2 - Example of valve lifting patterns at 6000 rpm
Rolling resistance coeff. (Cr) 0.014
Table 2 - Vehicle characteristics

Bore (mm) 86
Stroke (mm) 86
Compression ratio 10.8
Cylinder number 4
Inlet valve number 2
Exhaust valve number 2
Fig. 3 - Example of the variation of the mean flow area
obtained by acting on valve event Rated speed and power 5600 rpm/100 kW
Table 3 - Engine characteristics
LOAD VARIATION ABILITY OF EVA
ACTUATORS Driving schedules utilized in the calculations were: The
European Urban Driving Cycle (UDC), the Extra Urban
Load variation can be a problem for electromagnetic Driving Cycle (EUDC), the road load (evaluated in V gear
actuators. Thus, the evaluation of load variation ability is from 40 km/h to 200 km/h) and idle.
of fundamental importance in starting the design of an
electromagnetic valve actuator. Power required during transients has been simulated
according to model (14):
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é dV ù V
Pm = ê Fr + M V (4)
ë dt úû η m

1
Fr = C r M V g + ρ a C x AV 2 (5)
2

V is the vehicle velocity while M V and A are its mass

and frontal area respectively. The values of drag
coefficient C X and the rolling resistance C r appear in
Table 3.

One-dimensional calculation of engine cycle was carried

out with the aid of the one-dimensional code WAVE (15).
The combustion phase was simulated using the IRIS
module of the code. It is based on a quasi-dimensional Fig. 6 - Load variation ability: minimum BMEP obtained
with cylinder deactivation and rise time tr=3.33 ms
approach (zero-dimensional multi-zone). It takes into
account, in an approximated way, the combustion
chamber shape and the turbulence development. The
code also considers blow by and mechanical losses. The
losses due to oil pump, water pump and electrical
generator were also taken into account according to ref.
14.

Fig. 7 - Load variation ability: minimum BMEP obtained

with cylinder deactivation and rise time tr=2.78 ms

Since the decrease of the rise time implies the choice of

a much stiffer spring, higher power is needed to lift the
Fig. 5 - Load variation ability: minimum BMEP obtained moving parts. In addition, higher energy losses can be
with four cylinders and one inlet valve per cylinder for
the selected rise times expected in this case.

An alternative way to vary load, maintaining low losses,

In figures 5, 6, 7 the Brake Mean Effective Pressure
(BMEP) needed to describe UDC, EUDC cycles and the
road load in V gear is shown versus rpm.
Diagram 5 also shows the patterns of the minimum
engine load that can be realized using four cylinders with
only one intake valve per cylinder. The lift laws relative to
the rise times: tr=3.33 ms, tr=2.78 ms and tr=2.22 ms
were utilized for calculations.
This type of solution (four cylinders one inlet valve per
cylinder), could allow the use of EVA systems on intake
valves only. Unfortunately, none of the three examined
solutions allows the engine to work at low loads in a
satisfactory manner. A further decrease of the rise time
is required.
is to deactivate one or more cylinders (11).
Cylinder deactivation can bring improvements to fuel
consumption if both inlet and exhaust valve are closed.
Therefore, the adoption of this strategy is connected to
the choice to adopt EVA systems for all ports.
Figures 6 and 7 show how it is possible to vary the load
by the deactivation of one or two cylinders. In particular,
fig 6 refers to tr=3.33ms, while figure 7 refers to
tr=2.78ms. It is important to observe that the adoption of
the rise time tr=2.78ms (fig. 7) makes it possible to reach
the lowest load using two cylinders and one valve per
cylinder.
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Finally, the idle condition, evaluated between 600 and

800 rpm, did not give any problem even when using the
highest rise time, four cylinders and two inlet valves for
each cylinder.

DESIGN PROBLEMS OF EVA ACTUATORS

The design of an EVA actuator should take into account:

some geometrical constraints, the rise time to be Fig. 8 - Schematic diagram of the selected axial
achieved and, last but not the least, the ability to pull up symmetric actuator
the armature the first time when the turnkey is switched
on. The main objectives of the electro-mechanic design
is to reduce as far as possible both the power
requirements and the energy losses of the device.

The most important geometrical constraint is probably

the distance between the valve axes of engines with two
inlet and two exhaust ports.

In the design of EVA the choice of the “rise time”

parameter depends on the rated speed and on the
number of ports or cylinders that can be deactivated. For
example, in a two-cylinder engine, it is possible to
deactivate one port per cylinder, but cylinder deactivation
does not seem to be a suitable option. In this case,
therefore, the choice of a rise time sufficiently low
becomes mandatory.
The first lift at engine start up generally can be
undertaken quite slowly. This is an advantage for
required current and power peaks. Anyway, if the
selected rise time becomes low, the stiffness of springs
must be high. In some cases, depending on the magnet
design, the first lift becomes practically impossible.
The preliminary designs of several axial-symmetric
actuators have been carried out in a previous phase of
activity. Details can be found in reference (16).
The actuator chosen for the calculations is axial
symmetric The armature is simply a disk (fig. 8). This
configuration is commonly used when the exerted
magnetic force is required at a very short distance. The
total sliding mass is 81 grams
The length and cross sectional area of the electrical wire
and the number of turns of the coil were selected after a
long series of trials and were judged the most useful for
the scope of the present project.
Fig. 9 - Magnetic force versus coil current and distance
between armature and core gap
The ferromagnetic material adopted for the core is
Kenolube by Höganäs. It has a relative permeability
equal to 500, about constant with B, and a very high
resistivity (about 1000 times higher than that of iron). The
material selected for the armature is magnetic steel.
Figure 9 shows the electromagnetic force in a three-
dimensional diagram. The diagram reports the magnetic
force obtained varying the coil current at fixed positions
of the armatures. The increase of force with the
decreasing of distance is very evident.
As can be expected, this configuration is very sensitive to
the distance of the armature from the core. This effect is
also evident in figure 10. Here the magnetic force
generated with different coil currents was reported
versus the distance. It can be observed that this
configuration only works effectively under 1 mm.

All calculations were carried out by Flux2D (17). It is a
2D version of an electromagnetic code based on a finite
element solver. The code can calculate forces, eddy
currents and electrical energy losses. Moreover, it takes
into account the characteristics of the materials and the
movement of surfaces.
The spring stiffness for a given mass of moving parts
depends on the needed rise time. In fact, the rise times:
tr=3.33 ms, tr=2.78 ms, tr=2.22 ms, for a mass of 81
grams can be realized with the spring stiffness reported
in Table 4.
The hold currents increase rapidly with the decrease of
the rise time (fig. 11)
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utilizes look up tables for magnetic force and inductance.

Both of them are evaluated versus the armature distance
and the current intensity. The tables were derived by the
numerical experiments carried out using the magnetic
CAD.

Figure 12 shows a block scheme of EVA control. The

voltages VU(t) and VL(t), applied to the upper and lower
coil respectively, are the control signals. The
corresponding coil currents IU(t) e IL(t) are the feedback
signals.

Fig. 10 - Magnetic force versus air gap

Mass Stiffness tr=3.33 tr=2.78 tr=2.22

[g] (N/m) [ms] [ms] [ms]

81 KA 72100 103500 162200 Fig. 12 - Scheme of the Coils Control

Table 4 - Spring stiffness for three rise times

The valve position signal h(t) is utilized to get logical
information indicating armature passing at fixed
positions. Thus, a closed loop control is realized on coil
currents, while an open loop control is carried out on the
armature position. The ECU sends the Open Valve (OV)
command signal to the Coil Control (CC) to enable the
valve opening (OV=1) and closing (OV=0).

The CC is divided into two parts: Upper Coil Control

(UCC) and Lower Coil Control (LCC). Each of them
controls the corresponding coil current selecting a
voltage between the values +VM, -VM and zero. It is
noticed that the UCC and LCC operate in parallel and
independent way, but with the same logic. The UCC and
LCC have to reduce the impact intensity during closing
and opening phases respectively.

It is supposed that initially the valve is closed (Hold-Up).

Fig. 11 - Hold current versus rise angle at 6000 rpm
The rise time assumed in our calculations is 2.78 ms,
that is 100 degrees at 6000 rpm. The maximum lift of the
actuator is 6.9 mm and the total lift area is equivalent to
that generated by a typical polynomial cam with a
maximum lift of 9.5 mm.
When the open command (OV=1) arrives from the ECU,
the UCC releases the armature that starts free evolution.
At a certain distance, the LCC catches the armature and
leads it onto the lower coil (Hold-Down). The valve
remains opened until the ECU send the closure valve
(OV=0).

At this point, the LCC releases the armature that starts

A SIMPLE CONTROL SCHEME OF THE EVA
ACTUATOR
A control scheme was set up to evaluate power
requirements, energy losses, as well as voltage and
current levels necessary for valve opening and closing.
The control is based on a simplified model of the
electromechanical actuator (see appendix). The model
again free evolution against the upper coil where the
UCC catches the armature bringing the valve softly onto
its seat.
The UCC ensures the closure of the valve at a force of
50N. Given the symmetry of the electromagnetic system,
the LCC logic is the same as the UCC.
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Fig. 13 - Valve lift simulation of the EVA . The square
signal is the Open Valve command sent by ECU
Fig. 14 - Upper and lower coil currents resulting from
the control of EVA
In figure 13 the simulation of the valve lift, resulting from
the designed control, is shown. The ratio between the
area subtended by the valve lift and the traditional cam
profile is 1,05. That guarantees a mean flow area about
equivalent to the one obtained using a traditional cam.
Figure 14 shows the reference and the actual currents of
the two coils superimposed on the non dimensional
controlled lift profile. A certain ripple of the currents can
be noted. This is due to the use of relay function to
regulate the coil currents at their desired values.
The amplitude of these oscillations is 0.1A and it
coincides with the threshold of relay control function. The
switching frequency of the control voltage depends on
the maximum voltage VM and the amplitude of the
current error threshold. In our simulations the working
switching frequencies were 30Khz in Hold-Up phase and
17Khz in Hold-Down phase.
One of the problems related to actuator operation is the
noise emitted from the impact between moving parts
(armature and valve) during the opening and closing
phases. An important objective of EVA control is to
guarantee a soft landing of the valve and of the
armature:
Under real operating conditions, some disturbances
make it difficult to obtain a soft landing. For example, the
unknown gas forces acting on the valves are a possible
disturbance.
The landing velocities obtained in our simulations range
between 0.25 and 0.5 m/s. These values are higher than
the optimal ones (about 0.1m/s). However, in the present
paper the attention was mainly focused on power and
energy loss evaluations.
Fig. 15 – Electric mean power required for the upper
and lower coils according to a given coils control
The mean power necessary to Hold-Up and Hold-Down
the armature is shown in figure 15. It is interesting to
observe that to pass from the hold phase to the
successive release phase, the control voltage changes
from +VM to –VM and a partial recovery of energy
becomes possible. Power curves represented in figure
15 do not take into account the loss occurring in battery
and in the generator.
FIRST LIFT OF THE ARMATURE
When the turnkey is switched on, the EVA armature
describes the first lift. This is an extremely critical phase
because the catching of armature must be achieved at
the maximum distance from the core and there is no
stored energy in the system. Nevertheless, the first lift
can be attained in a reasonably long time so that inertia
effects are almost absent and the magnetic force can be
mainly utilized to load the springs.
The requirements of the system to perform the first
catching of the valve were analyzed by an inverse
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dynamics model based on the law represented in figure
16.
Fig. 16 – Valve lift law and relative velocity achieved at
the engine start up
Fig. 17 – Upper coil current required lifting to an
exponential valve lift law
The upper coil current and the power required to lift up
moving masses at engine start up are shown in figures
17 and 18. Numerical values of power required are
reported in table 5. The table shows the current, the
power required and the energy used up for the lift.
Fig. 18 - Power required for the first valve lift
In the present configuration of EVA the peak of power is
quite high. A careful optimization of the design could
reduce it to more acceptable values.
Closure Max Max
Current
Energy
Current Power
[A] [A] [W] [J]
3 65.3 1500 176
Table 5 - Closure current, max current and max power
required to attain the first valve lift
Power and energy in table 5 do not take into account
battery and generator losses.
EFFECT OF THE EVA ACTUATOR ON ENGINE
PERFORMANCE
The effects on engine performance derived from the
adoption of an EVA actuator depend not only on the
design of the actuator, but also on the strategy selected
to operate the inlet and the exhaust valves.
The flexibility of the actuator is very high. Thus, it is quite
impossible to give an exhaustive picture of possible
strategies that can be implemented to reduce emissions
and fuel consumption. From this point of view, any
pretension to generalize the present results could be
meaningfulness.
It may be useful to remember that the engine has four
cylinders with four valves per cylinder (table 3) while
main vehicle characteristics appear in table 2.
The start of the inlet phase has been selected at about
Top Dead Center (TDC) that seems a convenient choice
to reduce both fuel consumption and NOx (20).No
strategy was implemented to vary the amount of internal
EGR using the EVA actuator.
In these working conditions, valve and cylinder
deactivation were an obliged choice to vary the load. The
performance analysis was limited to the following cases.
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• Two Cylinders One Valve (2C-1V)

• Three Cylinders One Valve (3C-1V)
• Four Cylinders One Valve (4C-1V)
• Four Cylinders Two Valves (4C-2V)

In all calculations, the best torque timing was selected.

Valve deactivation is not only a means of varying the

load but could also be a very effective way to improve
cyclic variability which is quite high at low loads.

Moreover, when one or more cylinders are deactivated,

the other ones work with a higher IMEP. That can cause
an increase of NOx emission but generally can give
benefits on HC emissions.

Unfortunately, we cannot calculate HC emissions with

the present version of WAVE code and we will limit our
analysis to NOx emission and to specific fuel
Fig. 19 - EVA–Throttle EINOx comparison at 2000rpm
consumption.

In figures 19, 20 and 21, NOx Emission Index (EINOx) is

represented versus BMEP for the throttle operated
engine and for the four conditions, just described,
relative to EVA.

At 2000 rpm (fig.19), EINOx due to throttle appears high

at very low loads. It reaches a minimum at about two bar
of BMEP and then it shows an increase with increase of
load.

Now, EINOx (g/kwh) can be obtained multiplying the

emission index EI(g/kg) to the specific fuel consumption
BSFC(g/kWh). EI(g/kg) increases with load, but the
specific fuel consumption has very high values at low
loads and this justifies the above-described pattern.

EINOx for the operating condition identified with

“Throttle” shows a similar behavior at 3000 rpm and
4000 rpm with the only difference being that the Fig. 20 - EVA–Throttle EINOx comparison at 3000rpm
minimum of curves are positioned at higher loads, that is
about 3 bar at 3000 rpm and about 4 bar at 4000 rpm.

On the contrary, if we look at the patterns of EINOx

obtained with EVA (figs.19,20,21), we can observe that
the high peak of EINOx at low loads is absent. That is
due in part to lower levels of specific fuel consumption
and in part to more favorable values of EI(g/kg).

In figures 19, 20 and 21 the increase of EINOx with the

load is very evident for the EVA system. Moreover, the
curves become progressively sharper passing from 2000
rpm to 4000 rpm. Thus, it is important to select the
working points to have an advantage of EVA for NOx
emissions.

Fig. 21 - EVA–Throttle EINOx comparison at 4000rpm

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In the above quoted figures a minimum path for NOx has
been also drawn. The path that connects the lower
values of NOx is not continuous. As general trend,
whenever possible, it is convenient to work with two
valves instead of one and with a higher possible number
of cylinders.
EINOx reduction using EVA is more than 60% for loads
smaller than 1 bar and is of the order of 30% for loads
higher than 2bar.
Fig. 22 - BSFC percent variation of EVA (Throttle
Baseline)
Specific fuel consumption reductions using EVA
decrease progressively with the load and with the speed
as can be observed in figure 22.
SOME PROBLEMS AND ADVANTAGES OF EVA
ACTUATORS
In preceding paragraphs, a number of problems linked to
the load variation ability of a fixed lift EVA actuator have
been tackled. It has been seen that the choice of a low
“rise time” tr could improve the load variation ability of the
actuator. However, the peak current during the first
catching and the successive phases of hold, strongly
increase with the decrease of the selected rise time.
This fact implies a number of consequences for the
choice of electronic components, for the switching
strategy and therefore for the losses due to the Joule
effect and eddy currents in the material.
A valve and a cylinder deactivation strategy to vary the
load could be suitable, as it has been shown by other
authors (11). Clearly it seems possible to adopt such a
strategy only when the engine has at least two inlet
valves per cylinder and more than two cylinders.
To avoid excessive fluid dynamic losses the deactivation
of one or more cylinders should be realized by the
simultaneous closure of all inlet and exhaust valves of
the relative cylinder. Moreover, to reduce vibrations and
thermal stresses, the deactivated cylinders should
change over time according to a well-defined sequence.
This adds further complications to the control realization.
Firstly drive by wire is mandatory. Secondly, at least two
levels of control would be necessary. For example, the
lower level of control could be responsible for achieving
desired valve timing and event with low levels of impact.
A higher level of control could convert the inputs given by
the driver into a strategy of valve or cyclic cylinder
deactivation useful for reducing emissions, fuel
consumption, together with vibrations and thermal
stresses. Moreover, the above control should enable
smooth transitions between different working conditions.
The problems of impact and of noise are not yet
completely resolved even if a number of solutions based
on a closed loop control on valve position has been
proposed (11,12,18).
The advantages of EVA have been largely described in
technical literature (5,11,21). Among others we recall the
possibility of reducing HC emissions during cranking and
warm up by the adoption of a delayed opening of inlet
valves (11).
Finally, last but not the least, a topic area to be fully
explored is the realization of different combustion
processes such as the Radical Activated Combustion
that is only possible with a precise control of internal
EGR (21).
CONCLUSIONS
Some design problems of electromechanical valve
actuators with two magnets and two balanced springs
have been analyzed.
In particular, the problem of varying load has been
tackled with the aid of the commercial one-dimensional
code Wave produced by Ricardo, while the
electromechanical design was carried out using Flux2D
produced by Cedrat
Because of the working principle of the device (fixed lift,
fixed lifting time and variable valve event), the use of
different strategies, such as cylinder or ports
deactivation, becomes mandatory. This happens in
particular at low loads.
A simple control logic for the EVA actuator has been
proposed. The control structure produces feedback on
the coil currents. The control of the valve position occurs
at open loop.
The requirements of the system to perform the first
catching of the valve have been analyzed by an inverse
dynamics model.
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The effect of EVA on engine performance in terms of
NOx emission and BSFC has been evaluated, also in the
light of current literature. The most important findings
seem the following:
The advantages are all linked to the flexibility of the
system and include:
• Better performance at high loads
• Gain in efficiency with simultaneous reduction of
pollutants at low loads
• Reduction of HC emissions during cranking and
warm up phases.
• Internal EGR control during steady and transient
operations.
• Possibility of achieving innovative combustion
processes
In our opinion, the most important problems of EVA
systems derive from their working principle and from the
physical properties of their constituting elements.
In fact, since EVA systems work with fixed lift and rise
time, generally there is the necessity to deactivate some
valves or cylinders to vary the load. This fact causes a
noticeable complexity in managing strategies as
discussed in preceding paragraphs.
Moreover, a careful closed loop control on valve position
is needed to avoid impacts. This control is quite critical
because magnetic forces increase rapidly when the
armature is close to the core.
EVA control strategies and the management system
should be very robust to assure good levels of reliability
and safety.
In conclusion, even if a number of problems should be
solved, EVA systems appear to be one of the most
interesting prospective in evolution for today’s Internal
Combustion Engines.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The work presented in this paper was carried out within
the frame of the work-package “Study and optimization
of Spark Ignition Engines” with the financial support of
Italian Minister of Education, University, Research,
Science and Technology (MIURA), cluster 20:
“Tecnologie Eco Compatibili”
The authors wish to thank Höganäs Italia for their
information about the electro-magnetic characteristics of
the material considered in the simulations by FLUX code.
REFERENCES
1. A. Titolo, “The Variable Valve Timing System-
Application on a V8 Engine”, SAE paper 910009
2. M. Hamazaki, T. Hosaka, “Development of the
Variable Valve Timing and Lift (VTEC) engine for the
Honda NSX “, SAE paper 910008
3. Claus Brustle and Dietmar Schwarzenthal, F.
Porsche AG, "Variocam Plus- A Highlight of the
Porsche 911 Turbo Engine“, SAE paper 2001-01-
0245
4. Ronald J. Pierik and James F. Burkhard, “Design
and Development of a Mechanical Variable Valve
Actuation System”, SAE paper 2000-01-1221
5. R. Flierl and M. Kluting, “ The Third Generation of
Valve trains - New Fully Variable Valve trains for
Throttle-Free Load Control”, SAE paper 2000-01-
1227
6. Shinichi Takemura, Shunichi Aoyama, Takanobu
Sugiyama, Tseneyasu Nohara and Katusuya Moteki,
Makamoto Nakamura and Seinosuke Hara, “ A study
of a Continuous Variable Valve Event and Lift (VEL)
System, SAE paper 2001-01-0243
7. Makamoto Nakamura and Seinosuke Hara,
Yoshihiko Yamada, Keisuke Takeda, Naoki
Okamoto and Tsutomu Hibi, Shinichi Takemura,
Shunichi Aoyama, “ A Continuous Variable Valve
Event and Lift Control Device (VEL) for Automotive
Engines”, SAE paper 2001-01-0244
8. P. Nuccio “ Distribuzione variabile come mezzo per
la regolazione del motore ad accensione comandata”
ATA, settembre 1983 vol. 36 N° 9, Paper 82071 XIX
FISITA Congress - Melbourne.
9. L. Bernard, A. Ferrari, F. Vattaneo, C. Vafidis
“Developments in Fiat’s electro-hydraulic variable
valve actuation system”, Congress on variable valve
timing, Haus der Technik - Essen, March 28-29 2000
10. Rassern R. Henry, “ Single-Cylinder Engine Test of a
Motor-Driven Variable-Valve Actuator”, SAE paper
2001-01-0241
11. M. Pischinger et al., „ Benefits of the
Electromechanical Valve Train in Vehicle Operation“,
SAE paper 2000-01-1223
12. S. Butzmann and J. Melbert, A. Koch, „ Sensor less
Control of Electromagnetic Actuators for Variable
Valve Train, SAE paper 2000-01-1225
13. M. Pontoppidan, G. Gaviani, G. Bella, A. de Maio
and V. Rocco, “Experimental and Numerical
Approach to Injection and Timing Optimization of
Lean GDI-Combustion Behavior”, SAE paper 1999-
01-0173
14. J. B., Heywood, “Internal Combustion Engines”, Mc
Graw -Hill, 1989
15. WAVE by RICARDO Software, version 5.2 May 2000
16. V. Giglio, B. Iorio, G. Police, A. di Gaeta, “Preliminary
Experiences in the Design of an Electromechanical
Valve Actuator”, ICE 2001 congress, Capri,
September, 23-25, 2001
 Downloaded from SAE International by Univ of Nottingham - Kings Meadow Campus, Saturday, August 11, 2018

17. FLUX 2D by CEDRAT Software, version 7.5.2 March φ U = NB U S and φ U = NB L S

2001
18. W. Hoffmann, A. Stefanopoulou, “Valve Position
Tracking for Soft Landing of Electromechanical where N is the number of turns and S is the area of the
Camless Valve Train“, proceedings IFAC 2001, pag. magnetic circuit.
305-310.
The inductance has been calculated by a look up table
19. H. Bode, “Lead-Acid Batteries”, John Wiley & Sons,
derived by numerical steady state experiments carried
Princeton, New Jersey, 1977, ISBN 0-471-08455-7.
out with FLUX software at different coil currents and air
20. S. Diana, B. Iorio, V. Giglio, G. Police, “The Effect of
gaps. Let is L = L(I, airgap) , the inductance tables are:
Valve Lift Shape and Timing on Air Motion and
Mixture Formation of DISI Engines Adopting
Different VVA Actuators”, SAE paper 2001-01-3553. L U = L(| I U |, h) L L = L(| I L |, h MAX - h)
21. Wolfgang Salber, Hans Kemper, Frank van der
Staay , Thomas Esch, “The Electro-Mechanical The forces generated by the two coils:
Valve Train – A System Module for Future
Powertrain Concepts”, MTZ Motortechnische 2
1 BU
Zeitschrift 61(2000)12. FMU = SARM α m (I U , h )
2 µ0
CONTACT 2
1 BL
FML = SARM α m (I L , h MAX - h )
Dr. V Giglio, Dr B. Iorio, Dr G. Police 2 µ0
Istituto Motori of National Research Council of Italy
Email: police@motori.im.na.cnr.it
where µ o is the vacuum magnetic permeability, S ARM is
Web: http://www.im.na.cnr.it
the active area of the armature and α m (I, airgap) is a
correction function of the magnetic force derived by
Dr. di Gaeta numerical experiments.
Dipartimento di Informatica e Sistemistica – Università
degli Studi di Napoli “Federico II” The Newton law is:
Email: digaeta@unina.it
d 2h
M = FML − FMU − FEL − FV
dt 2
APPENDIX
where M is the mass of the moving parts,
The Kirchoff law, taking into account the electromotive
force induced by the coil flux linkage variation φ U and æ h ö
FEL = K ç h − MAX ÷
φ L , is for the two coils: è 2 ø

dφ U is the spring force and

VU = R C I U +
dt dh
FV = σ
dt
dφ L
VL = R C I L +
dt is the friction force.

VU and VL are the voltages applied to the coils
respectively upper and lower, and R C is the electric
resistance of one coil.
The upper and lower coils flux linkages are expressed
by:
The model does not take into account eddy currents in
explicit way. However, since the electrical resistivity of
the material is about 1000 times higher than that of iron,
the previous approximation does not cause significant
errors in magnetic force calculation.

φ U = L U I U and φL = L L I L

The magnetic fields generate by the two coils are related

with flux linkages as: