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Variable Valve Actuation Systems

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Advances in Internal Combustion Engine Research

Part of the book series: Energy, Environment, and Sustainability ((ENENSU))

Abstract

Internal combustion (IC) engines today represent a class of heat engines marked by their high power-to-weight ratio, making them the suitable choice for portable power solutions. Being reliable and robust, their widespread use in commercial vehicles is, therefore, implicitly justified. Being a heat engine, the efficiency and performance of an internal combustion engine are limited by the temperature of heat addition and rejection. Moreover, with the inherent irreversible and non-ideal nature of the various processes of the power cycle, a fraction of the ideal thermodynamic efficiency is realised accounting for the low overall thermal efficiency. The text that follows is centred around the gas exchange process in an IC engine. The working of conventional camshaft-driven valve train systems, which have been in use for quite a long time, has been discussed followed by its limitations and their repercussions on the performance and efficiency of an IC engine. The origins of the unavoidable pumping losses accompanying load control using a throttle valve have been explained. An overview of the various strategies and methods used in commercial vehicles to mitigate such losses (variable valve timing and variable valve lift) has been given while providing some insight into the working of some experimental variable valve actuation systems. The discussion then shifts to fully flexible camless valve actuation systems explaining the working of some popular actuation systems, highlighting their advantages and limitations. The basic control logic of such systems is then discussed followed by a list of some unique attributes and advantages of the same. Few experimental results from the literature have also been cited to substantiate the utility of variable valve actuation systems.

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Abbreviations

3D:

Three-dimensional

BDC:

Bottom dead centre

CI:

Compression ignition

ECU:

Engine control unit

EEVC:

Early exhaust valve closing

EEVO:

Early exhaust valve opening

EGR:

Exhaust gas recirculation

EIVC:

Early intake valve closing

EIVO:

Early intake valve opening

EPVA:

Electro-pneumatic valve actuation

EVC:

Exhaust valve closing

EVO:

Exhaust valve opening

FFVA:

Fully flexible valve actuator

HC:

Hydrocarbon

IC:

Internal combustion

IVC:

Intake valve closing

IVO:

Intake valve opening

LEVC:

Late exhaust valve closing

LEVO:

Late exhaust valve opening

LIVC:

Late intake valve closing

LIVO:

Late intake valve opening

PMEP:

Pumping mean effective pressure

RPM:

Revolutions per minute

SI:

Spark ignition

TDC:

Top dead centre

VCP:

Variable cam phaser

VCT:

Variable camshaft timing

VTEC:

Variable valve timing and lift electronic control

VVA:

Variable valve actuation

VVEL:

Variable valve event and lift

VVL:

Variable valve lift

VVT:

Variable valve timing

VVTi:

Variable valve timing with intelligence

References

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, Kharagpur, 721302, West Bengal, India

    Dhananjay Kumar Srivastava, Abhimanyu Das & Nitish Kumar Singh

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  1. Dhananjay Kumar Srivastava
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  2. Abhimanyu Das
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  3. Nitish Kumar Singh
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Correspondence to Dhananjay Kumar Srivastava .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, Kharagpur, West Bengal, India

    Dhananjay Kumar Srivastava

  2. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, India

    Avinash Kumar Agarwal

  3. Department of Power Engineering, Jadavpur University, Kolkata, West Bengal, India

    Amitava Datta

  4. Department of Mechanical Engineering, School of Mechanical, Materials and Energy Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Ropar, Rupnagar, Punjab, India

    Rakesh Kumar Maurya

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Srivastava, D.K., Das, A., Singh, N.K. (2018). Variable Valve Actuation Systems. In: Srivastava, D., Agarwal, A., Datta, A., Maurya, R. (eds) Advances in Internal Combustion Engine Research. Energy, Environment, and Sustainability. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-7575-9_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-7575-9_4

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  • Online ISBN: 978-981-10-7575-9

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