MODULAR ENGINE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM (MEMS) AND AIR/FLUID

CONTROL

MEMS, is an electronic system that determines how much fuel to be injected to the
cylinders, developed by Rover Group. This system mainly used in fuel injected car
engines to increase the performance and efficiency in terms of fuel consumption.
[CITATION Rov \l 2057 ]

Engine Control Unit (ECU) has been used for MEMS which controls ignition, fuelling and
idle speed. To be able to calculate fuelling, ECU uses a method called Speed-Density and
takes some measurements to complete the calculations from different parts of the
engine system including measurement of pressure of the air in the manifold with a
vacuum hose which gives a good idea of how much fuel should be injected. In addition to
pressure, ECU also calculates the engine speed with a crank/shaft sensor, measures the
intake air temperature at the rear of the intake box as pressure measurement alone will
not be enough to determine the fuelling ratio. ECU also repeats the temperature
measurements while engine is working to measure the engine temperature, considering
engine will be heated up while running. As an example, MEMS prepares a rich mixture
when engine is first started, then fuel ratio is lowered by the system as engine starts
heating up. [ CITATION Rov \l 2057 ]

Speed-Density method basically gathers the information obtained from the

measurements which are, in detail, absolute pressure from intake manifold pressure
sensor (MAP), the intake air temperature (IAT), engine speed, the estimated charging
efficiency (CE) and the amount of exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) and uses the governing
equations to calculate the amount of air entering into the engine. Method mainly
calculates volume and density with the following set of equations [ CITATION Lei15 \l
2057 ];

CEV cycn
V air =
2
This equation gives the intake volume engine by charging efficiency. Here,

Ce: charging efficiency

Vcyc: Cylinder volume
n: Engine speed

Density is calculated with ideal gas equation;

m nM MP air
air = = =
v nRT air RT air
Pair

Here;

M: Molar mass of the air

Pair: intake manifold pressure
Tair: intake manifold temperature
R: ideal gas constant
With the values can be derived from the above equations, intake air amount can be
calculated as below;

CEV cycM
n
R
Pair
2
m=V airair =
T air

As described in [ CITATION Lei15 \l 2057 ]

The Importance of MEMS

MEMS is the main system in an engine that controls the air-fuel ratio. Air-fuel ratio is one
of the most important parameters for an engine in terms of efficiency, power and
economy; as well as emissions. If the air intake is not in compliance with the engine
requirements, this will result in decrease in engine performance as a whole considering
the engine will not be able to work on stoichiometric conditions.[ CITATION Lei15 \l 2057 ]

The intake air ratio determines the quality of the mixture injected into the cylinder.
Wrong amount of air intake will result in mixture to be lean or rich. If the mixture used is
lean, higher temperatures is obtained as a result which increases the efficiency, however
it can result in knocking which is caused by wrong positioning of the ignition rather than
spark plug-outside of the ignition area. This causes serious damage in engines. If the
mixture is rich, the engine can produce more power at lower temperatures, but it is less
efficient than leaner mixtures. In real applications, air-fuel ratio is chosen richer to enable
cooler combustion.

Air-fuel ratio balances the air and fuel to be used for combustion. At a certain speed, the
MEMS sensor can show some differences due to the loop for feedback to the system for
air intake, but the engine speed will be maintained and power output will stay the same.
Considering used air will be the same for the same speed, fuel needs to be limited to
ensure stoichiometric conditions to maintain its adjustment. Additionally, in case of any
defects during air intake (such as sensor failure) there should be a control mechanism to
limit the fuel to protect engine from more damages can occur.

One can as well say, MEMS is the main controller of a healthy combustion process. The
air-fuel ratio affects dearly the overall efficiency, controls the emissions and fuel
consumption.