Crank Shaft

Introduction:
Governments are asking engine manufacturers to make engines that
use less fuel, produce fewer harmful emissions, and make less noise.
This has led to a lot of research to improve how engines burn fuel.
Measuring and analyzing the pressure inside the engine during
combustion is crucial for making engines work better, controlling
emissions, reducing noise, and monitoring engine health.

However, directly measuring this pressure inside the engine

cylinders using a pressure sensor is tricky outside of a controlled
laboratory environment.
It's expensive to use high-performance pressure sensors, and the
tough conditions inside the engine can make these sensors wear out
quickly. It's also challenging to find a good spot to attach the
pressure sensor, and there can be errors due to calibration, wave
movement, and deposits in the sensor and passages.
To overcome these challenges, researchers have been working for
the past twenty years on finding a stable and reliable way to
estimate the pressure inside the engine without directly measuring
it.

Crankshaft speed analysis

Like we talked about earlier, the changes in the speed of the engine's
crankshaft tell us something about how the engine is burning fuel in
its cylinders.
The first thing we need to do to figure this out is to pick a method for
figuring it out. We can either use a math-based model of the engine
or a method based on a database.
To make this method work, we need to take measurements when the
engine is running in different conditions.
This helps us build the model or database, and we also use these
measurements to check if the method we chose is accurate.
Different reconstruction approaches
We can figure out the pressure changes in the engine by looking at
how the crankshaft speed goes up and down.
There are two main ways to do this: using math formulas or using
information stored in a database.
More information in the crankshaft speed fluctuations

It is possible to extract more information from the speed

fluctuations than to merely recover the pressure waveform. It can
also be used to predict the torque produced by the engine as well as
for detecting, localizing and identifying faults.

Torque:

In machines that spin, like car engines, we usually figure out the
twisting force (torque) by looking at how much a shaft bends. But in
cars, it's hard to find a good spot for the tool that measures this
twisting force, and it's also expensive. Mauer and Watts came up
with a clever and affordable solution. They added a gear to the front
of the engine, with the same number of teeth as the spinning part
(flywheel). They placed two sensors, like magnets, near both the
flywheel and the new gear. The difference in timing between these
two gears tells us how much twisting force there is (torque). We can
also calculate torque by studying how the speed of the spinning part
changes, using a math model of the engine.

Fault detection, localization and identification

When a cylinder in an engine misfires, it means that the fuel isn't
burning properly, and the twisting force (torque) it produces is zero.
If we can accurately measure this twisting force, we can detect the
misfire. However, if the misfire is partial, caused by issues like not
enough fuel or poor compression, it may only show as a reduced
twisting force, making it hard to distinguish from normal variations.
Since we can't measure twisting force directly, various methods have
been suggested to detect misfires. These methods fall into three
main groups:
 1. Shape of Crankshaft Speed
 Analyzing the shape of how the engine's crankshaft

speeds up and slows down can indicate misfires. For

example, a positive slope suggests a healthy cylinder,
while a negative slope indicates a fault.

2. Frequency Transformation
 Transforming speed fluctuations, mainly into frequency,

helps determine if there's a malfunction. Different

methods calculate indices from speed fluctuations, such
as maximum speed fluctuation or the time it takes to go
from minimum to maximum speed for a cycle.

3. Mathematical Models
 Deriving mathematical models of the engine helps

calculate the twisting force (indicated torque), which can

be used to detect faults.

For example, one simple way is to analyze the speed fluctuation for
each cylinder using linear regression. A positive slope means a
healthy cylinder, and a negative slope indicates a fault. Other
methods calculate indices from speed fluctuations, such as
maximum speed fluctuation or the time it takes to go from minimum
to maximum speed for a cycle. These methods help not only detect
faults but also provide some information about their location and
type.
Experimental set-up

Crankshaft speed calculation

The crankshaft speed is calculated from the number of time samples
between two crank angle marks (1/2 degree).

Unfortunately this method demands high sampling frequency to give

a high resolution at high speeds.

The speed resolution (s), defined as the smallest speed change that
can be measured, can be calculated with the following expression:
Localization of TDC position
Knowing the precise position of the top dead centre (TDC) in an
engine is crucial for controlling and optimizing its performance and
managing emissions.

This information is especially important for thermodynamic

calculations and emission control. In the past, an accuracy of ±0.5
degree crank angle (CA) was considered sufficient for engine
control, while ±0.1 degree CA was required for IMEP calculations.
However, current regulations and demands on engine manufacturers
necessitate even higher accuracy, typically better than ±0.25 degree
CA, to meet emission standards without compromising fuel
efficiency.

Mechanical methods of measuring TDC position involve removing

cylinder heads to access pistons, making the process slow and
expensive.

Alternatively, capacitive sensors placed in the combustion chamber

can be used to measure TDC position without the need for extensive
disassembly.

An indirect method proposed involves using a capacitive sensor to

measure pressure pulses and simulate compression pulses to
pinpoint TDC.

Another indirect method involves rotating the crankshaft in a non-

firing mode while measuring crankshaft speed. The minimum speed
corresponds to TDC, representing the point with the highest
compression and braking force on the piston.
These indirect methods offer alternatives to mechanical
measurements, each with its own advantages and considerations.

Cylinder to cylinder distance

The TDC position was determined by curve-fitting the measured
piston position versus crank angle
Future research
In these studies only one engine has been investigated for each
method, pressure reconstruction and TDC localization, respectively.
It can however be expected that engines of the same model will give
differences in the measured crankshaft speed fluctuations even
though the input power (combustion or starter engine) is the same.
These variations will cause problems for the neural network to
predict correctly.

To investigate these differences and the capacity of the neural

networks to handle these variations, measurements will be carried
out on more engines.

The question to answer is; whether it is possible to train a neural

network with measurements from one or a few engines to predict
unknown engines, but of same model?

If such robustness exists for the maximum pressure prediction the

research will be enlarged to involve, besides the prediction of
maximum pressure also start of combustion, pressure rise and IMEP.

Other areas to investigate for the TDC localization is how the

tolerances, in for example the piston connecting rods that gives
different compression volumes, will influence the crankshaft speed
fluctuations and therefore also the predicted TDC position.
Leakage in valves and piston rings will affect the compression
pressure and consequently the speed fluctuations that will affect the
predictions of TDC position