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Accurate and Continuous Fuel Flow Rate 2011-01-1303

Published
Measurement Prediction for Real Time Application 04/12/2011

Jiamei Deng, Bastian Maass, Richard Stobart, Edward Winward and Zhijia Yang
Loughborough Univ.

Copyright © 2011 SAE International

doi:10.4271/2011-01-1303

This study shows that NLARX could accurately predict fuel

ABSTRACT flow rate with a R-square above 0.99.
One of the most critical challenges currently facing the diesel
engine industry is how to improve fuel economy under INTRODUCTION
emission regulations. Improvement in fuel economy can be
One of the most critical challenges facing the diesel engine
achieved by precisely controlling Air/Fuel ratio and by
industry is how to improve fuel economy and reduce
monitoring fuel consumption in real time. Accurate and
emissions. Current technologies for fuel efficiency
repeatable measurements of fuel rate play a critical role in
improvement and emissions reduction are highly dependent
successfully controlling air/fuel ratio and in monitoring fuel
on combustion modification technologies including injection
consumption.
technologies and real-time advanced control systems.
Combustion modification technologies modify combustion
Volumetric and gravimetric measurements are well-known
systems that will either aid or complement the actions of
methods for measuring fuel consumption of internal
engines. In these technologies, fuel flow rate measurements
combustion engines. However, these methods are not suitable
are essential for control purpose and thus play an important
for obtaining fuel flow rate data used in real-time control/
role in the development of techniques for emissions reduction
measurement.
and fuel economy improvement. A fuel flow rate model with
good prediction performance is even more apparently needed.
In this paper, neural networks are used to solve the problem
concerning discontinuous data of fuel flow rate measured by
Volumetric and gravimetric methods are well-known
using an AVL 733 s fuel meter. The continuous parts of
methods for measuring internal combustion engine fuel
discontinuous fuel flow rate are used to train and validate a
consumptions. In the volumetric approach, the volume of fuel
neural network, which can then be used to predict the
consumed by the engine is recorded. The fuel consumed is
discontinuous parts of the fuel flow rate. A comprehensive
equal to the consumed volume multiplied by the temperature-
and detailed neural network (NN) modeling technique for
dependent fuel density. The drainage time of a defined
engine application is presented. The experiments in this study
volume is measured and used to convert consumed fuel
are designed to collect informative data for steady states,
volume to fuel consumption. A fundamental characteristic of
where the speed and load are fixed. Different neural network
this approach is that the measurement is discontinuous. This
structures are compared, including feed-forward NN, feed-
discontinuous variable is not suitable for the purpose of
forward NN with delays and non-linear autoregressive model
control.
with exogenous inputs (NLARX). The NLARX is determined
to be the best structure for fuel flow rate prediction. The
Fuel gravimetric systems, such as, AVL 733S Dynamic Fuel
training process and input choices for catching fast and slow
Meter, consist of a measuring vessel filled with fuel and
dynamics are illustrated in the paper. Additionally, for real-
suspended on a balance system. The fuel consumption rate is
time control and measurement purposes, a fuel flow rate
determined by calculating the vessel's time related weight
model is maintained to be as simple as possible by
loss. Fuel flow rate measurements are continuous during the
minimizing the structure based on NN identifiable properties.

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consumption of the fuel in the vessel and discontinuous
during the refilling of the fuel meter.
Alternative fuel measurement system designs which are
popular in engine fuel measurement applications are based on
the Coriolis Effect or use a servo controlled displacement
measurement technique [1]. These designs are generally more
expensive but they have the advantages of both continuous
fuel measurement and fast response. For example, the AVL
733S is rated at <440ms while the AVL coriolis based system
(AVL 735S) is specified as <125 ms, a key advantage when
investigating engine transient response. When a fast response
is not required, some economic fuel metering systems are
always the sought-after solutions for lots of applications [2].
Virtual sensors have been utilized in various areas, such as,
engine and emission monitoring and vehicle dynamics. A key
advantage of NNs is that they can be used as an arbitrary
function approximation mechanism without knowing the
complicated underlying process, a highly advantageous and
economic way to measure fuel flow rate. NN modeling
belongs to one of nonlinear regression techniques. It is easy
for NN to run in engine control unit as NNs could be
composed of digital information.
Neural networks have been successfully used in many engine
based applications including emissions, boost pressure and
EGR prediction [3, 4, 5]. Bose and Kumar [6] use fuzzy logic
to predict the engine emissions, but one of the inputs is
cylinder peak pressure, which is difficult to obtain in standard
production engines. How to choose effective inputs based on
easily obtained parameters is of great importance for building
successful models. Exhaustive input searching is the most
difficult tasks for building models in engine application.
Schilling et al chose inputs based on a sensitivity analysis [7].
In developing a fuel flow rate model, the following general
and unique issues need to be considered:
1. The input choices are quite difficult. The basic fuel flow
equations could not be used directly as many variables are
either unmeasureable or unreliable
2. The transient information is difficult to capture for fuel
flow rate
3. Capturing both steady state and transient fuel flow rate
reliably in a single model is extremely difficult
4. Models are too complicated for real time control and
measurement purposes
Consequently, this paper focuses on the development of fuel
flow rate models in the steady state.
Problem (1) will be overcome by choosing the particular
inputs which excited the system in the application, to include:
where start of injection (SOI), common rail pressure (RP) or
SAE Int. J. Engines | Volume 4 | Issue 1
fuel ratio between main and total fuel injected (FR) - in
different load and speed points. Problem (2) is overcome by
doing extensive perturbation experiments for different torque
and speed points with steady state speed-load demand but
excited fuel system parameters (e.g. SOI, RP and FR).
Problem (3) will be overcome by using neural networks
employing the methodology of a non-linear autoregressive
model with exogenous inputs (NLARX) to predict the fuel
flow rate. Problem (4) is overcome by using neural network
identifiable properties to find a fuel flow rate model with
good performance, then reducing the structure size through
minimizing the number of delay parameters.
A fuel flow rate model should be simple to implement, easily
trained or re-trained, and should have good performance in
the prediction of unseen data. Moreover, to be used for diesel
operation, these models should also catch as much as possible
dynamics of the system. In this paper, identification
experiments are designed to catch all kinds of characteristics
of fuel flow rate. The models are developed to estimate the
fuel flow rate based on possible parameter changes in engine
operation. This model could be used for monitoring fuel flow
rate, optimizing engine operation, and achieving control
purpose.
This paper reports on work which has successfully identified
a NLARX model that captures the dynamics of fuel flow rate
with an accuracy of R-square of 0.99 for both training and
validation and high regression coefficient. The training and
validation data are collected using extensive point by point
system identification experiments. The model could be used
for control development in practical. This paper demonstrates
a comprehensive and detailed modeling technique that could
be used in engine applications. The method is highly flexible
and could help solve similar problems in other engine
applications.
In summary, the modeling process comprises the following
five steps:
1. The first step is to study the mechanisms of the fuel flow
rate meter. The purpose of this step is to understand the
properties and dynamics of fuel flow rate and choose
appropriate modeling techniques
2. The second step is to design a data collection experiment
to catch all of the dynamics of the fuel flow rate
3. The third step is to construct the ‘best’ fuel flow rate
estimation model structure by going through a process of
selecting different neural network structures and then
evaluating the performance of each
4. The fourth step identifies the unknown parameters in the
best model structure and validates the model.
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5. The final step is to reduce the model size by minimizing
the number of delay parameters.
The above steps will be described in detail later in this paper.
The continuous parts of the discontinuous fuel flow rate
measurement, as measured by the AVL 733S fuel mass
balance, are used to train and validate a neural network
model. The discontinuous parts of the fuel flow rate are then
predicted by using neural networks. It will be shown that the
developed neural network model predicts the fuel flow rate
with very good accuracy for discontinuous parts of the fuel
flow rate measurement.
In Section 1 - introduction, a brief background of the
research is introduced. Section 2 describes the measurement
principles of the fuel flow meter used in this work and details
the fuel supply and metering system. Section 3 describes the
experimental facility for the data collection and the real-time
measurement system integration. Section 4 outlines the
detailed procedure for data collection and preparation.
Section 5 reviews the different neural networks architectures
that can be considered as candidates for the fuel flow rate
model. Section 6 describes the training process and structure
minimization procedure. Section 7 shows the results of fuel
flow rate models in steady state scenario. Section 9 provides
conclusions on this work.
FUNDAMENTALS OF THE FUEL
FLOW RATE METER AND
EXPERIMENTAL SYSTEM
AVL 733S FUEL BALANCE
Basic Principle
The AVL 733s design utilizes the gravimetric measuring
principle in which fuel is supplied to the engine from a
measuring vessel, the weight of which is continuously
measured [8].
A schematic in figure 1 outlines the main components of the
AVL fuel balance. The measuring vessel is suspended on a
bending spring. A mechanism which is designed to be both
frictionless and hysteresis-less, translates mass into
displacement. The displacement is then measured using a
contactless capacitive displacement pick-up which sends the
resulting voltage signal to a microprocessor. The system is
fully automated in respect to both measurement and
calibration procedures.
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Figure 1. AVL 733S Measurement Principle [8].
The measurement vessel has both an engine fuel return line
and a venting line thus emulating a vehicle fuel tank. This
ensures that there is a continuous separation of air and vapor
in the measurement system - the engine feed and return lines.
Advantages of the Gravimetric Fuel Measurement
The gravimetric principle used by the meter has the
advantage of direct measurement of fuel consumption mass
rate and is thus not subject to the additional measurement
needs (fuel temperature) of a similar volumetric system and
thus reduces the likelihood of experimental error. i.e. the fuel
meter is insensitive to fuel temperature changes which can be
significant when the measuring circuit includes a return line
from the engine.
A further key advantage is the inherent capability to provide a
continuous fuel consumption measurement up to the total
mass of the measurement vessel when full. For the larger
1800g vessel in the 733S range, this translates into an ability
to continually measure fuel consumption for most passenger
car sized engines on many of the internationally know test
procedures. Total consumption can thus be determined
directly without integration and is thus very reliable.
Limitation of Gravimetric Fuel Measurement
The key limitation with a gravimetric fuel measurement
system is the time required to refill the measuring vessel and
a pre-determined dampening time. Measures can be taken to
reduce the refilling time to a minimum but it remains. The
frequency of refills is a function of the physical size of the
measurement vessel, the configuration of the fuel supply to
the meter, the engine fuel consumption rate and the
configuration of the fuel meter - whether it has been set to fill
to a volume less than the measurement vessel volume (for
increased measurement resolution). The other limitation
compared to alternative techniques that employ a coriolis or
displacement meter, is the much slower response time. Thus,
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this type meter is far better suited to steady state test
applications.
The Test Cell Measurement Circuit
The 733S fuel meter in isolation provides accurate fuel mass
rate measurements even when the fuel temperature inside the
measuring vessel changes, this is a consequence of the fuel
meter measuring fuel mass directly. However, the design of
the whole fuel measurement system remains critical for
reducing fuel temperature variation and hence fuel
temperature derived experimental error i.e. the fuel mass in
the measurement circuit itself must remain constant. As an
example of the effect of temperature gradient in the
measurement circuit, if the temperature of a system of
volume 1000 cm3 were to change by 1°C during the
measurement time for a fuel of density 0.85 g/cm3 and
expansion coefficient 0.001 per°C, the mass of the fuel in the
measurement circuit will be reduced by 1000×0.85×0.001×1
= 0.85g. If during this measurement interval the engine
consumes 50g, the fuel meter measures the engine fuel
consumption less the mass change in the measurement
circuit, thus the resulting error would be (50-(50-0.85))/50
which is1.7%. The measurement circuit also needs to remain
deaerated and the geometric volume must also be constant
(avoiding pressure related expansions).
As such, the measurement circuit implemented for the
Caterpillar C6.6 diesel engine employed during this work is
carefully designed and configured to avoid sources of error.
A schematic of the major components and fuel transfer lines
of the system are illustrated in figure 2.
Figure 2. Fuel metering circuit.
Measurement Modes and Configuration Parameters
Relevant to this Work
The 733S fuel meter has three main measurement modes; 1).
individual and multiple measurements with preselected
measurement time, 2). individual and multiple measurement
SAE Int. J. Engines | Volume 4 | Issue 1
with preselected weight and 3). interval (start/stop)
measurement. For the experimental work reported in this
paper, mode 2 was used with a filling level of 250g
(amplification mode 4 setting - for maximum accuracy).
Output Signals, Measurement and Conversion
For the work reported in this paper, the fuel measurement
system was configured to use the analogue (0-10V) output of
the 733S fuel meter which was sampled at greater than 10Hz
(the measurement rate of the fuel meter) by a National
Instruments PXI-6255 card mounted in a NI PXI-1042Q
chassis. The acquired voltage was then converted into
instantaneous fuel rate using a calibration equation, this being
a function of the configured measurement parameters of the
fuel meter.
EXPERIMENT FACILITY
The engine that is used in this study is a Caterpillar C6.6
ACERT heavy-duty off-highway engine. This is a 6 cylinder
engine with a Caterpillar common rail fuel system. The
engine calibration used in this work produces up to 159kW at
rated speed (2200rpm) with peak torque of 920Nm at
1400rpm The engine has been modified with a high pressure
loop EGR system and a variable geometry turbine for
experimental purposes.
The engine is fully instrumented to measure air, fuel and
cooling system pressures, temperatures and flow rates. The
fuel flow rate is measured by AVL 733S Fuel Mass Balance.
Emissions data is gathered principally using AVL 415 smoke
and 439 opacity meters (offering steady state and transient
measurement respectively) and a Horiba 9100 exhaust gas
analyzer measuring nitrous oxide, carbon dioxide, carbon
monoxide, unburnt hydrocarbons and oxygen. The
temperature and pressure at the exhaust port, are measured
for each of the six cylinders. This is supported by exhaust
manifold, post turbocharger, pre/post EGR cooler/control
valve temperature and pressure measurements. Figure 3
shows the engine facility.
DATA COLLECTION
INTRODUCTION FOR DATA
COLLECTION
An example of real fuel flow rate signal, with a pattern of
measurement then discontinuity is presented in figure 4. The
purpose of the work reported herein is to estimate the engine
fuel flow rate during the periods when the fuel meter is
refilling and stabilizing.
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Figure 3. Instrumented Caterpillar C6.6 Diesel engine.
Figure 4. An example of fuel meter signals with refill
gaps after 35 seconds at 2050 RPM at 457Nm.
In order to accurately estimate the instantaneous engine fuel
consumption rate during these discontinuous periods,
experimental data covering different dynamic characteristics
of the Caterpillar C6.6 medium duty diesel engine have been
acquired. They are split into training and validation subsets.
This data collection approach is designed to cover a wide
range of engine operating points and hence fuel meter
operational cases and encompass as many of the features of
the fuel consumption behavior as is possible from a practical
experimental approach. The data set is recorded from the
C6.6 engine with a sampling frequency of 33.3 Hz.
SPEED AND LOAD POINTS FOR
SYSTEM IDENTIFICATION
The data are generated for a total of 35 different operation
points with load that could be up to 70% of peak torque over
three speed points 1050, 1550 and 2050rpm.
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Figure 5. Segmentation of torque and speed for the
whole engine operating range.
In order to collect the required data for steady state engine
operation, the complete engine operating range is segmented
into nine zones as indicated in Figure 5. The system
identification experiments were conducted at the centers of
these nine zones, with the engine rpm being maintained
constant using the speed governor algorithm implemented in
the NI LabVIEW real-time control system which controls the
engine fuel injection [9].The load is applied using a Froude
AG400 HS dynamometer controlled by a Cadet V14 system,
and is again held constant. The applied engine load was
limited to 70% of rated torque for the purposes of this work.
Thus, the whole system identification experiment is reduced
to the six zones (X, Y, Z, U, V, and W) as outlined in figure
5.
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For torque, six points (C, D, E, F, G, H) in each zone are used
to collect the data and the torque change with 6.66% rated
torque interval corresponding to the speed, figure 6. That
means for each of these six zones, six different torque points
are used to identify fuel flow rate model. Thus, a total of 36
points are used to identify the model for the fuel flow rate.
However, as the engine is unstable at 2050 rpm and 66.6% of
rated torque, only35 points are used.
Each of these operating points is marked by varying engine
control settings where SOI, RP and FR are randomly
changed. These parameters are chosen as they are used as the
effective inputs of fuel path control application [10]. The data
collected at each load and speed case is split into half for
training and half for validation purpose.
Figure 6. Six different points of each zone.
PERTUBATION SIGNALS AND
OUTPUTS
In order to catch as much dynamic information as possible,
random steps are used as perturbation signals. They are
discrete time signals where steps of random magnitude may
occur at sampling instants with a certain probability p. The
input signal r can be expressed as follows:
(1)
where k is an integer, e is a discrete time white noise process
with zero mean and standard deviation.
As a consequence of the random variation of start of injection
of timing, rail pressure and fuel ratio at the different loads
and speeds for each of the 35 operating points, a large part of
the full operating rang of the engine is considered. For these
35 cases, even though the torque and speed demands remain
constant, there is small variation in engine speed due to these
SAE Int. J. Engines | Volume 4 | Issue 1
three parameters perturbation as the perturbation is
implemented in the real-time engine speed governor
algorithm. This algorithm allows the above outlined
parameters to be perturbed at a frequency of <1 Hz with the
algorithm then measuring the instantaneous engine rpm and
comparing to that demanded and then adjusting the quantity
of fuel injected into the cylinder. This way, the fuel quantity
is continually adjusted to compensate for the change in
combustion efficiency due to the perturbed parameters.
Figure 7 shows the training set of the control signal variation.
Each of a training and validation set consists of 32000
samples. This illustrates the random amplitude and frequency
changes of start of injection timing, rail pressure and fuel
ratio; a technique which leads to a more robust fuel rate
model. A neural network model has to be trained and thus the
data it is trained on and hence the techniques utilized to
generate such data are very important. Accurately
approximating the system response requires a data set to
contain as much information of the system dynamics as is
practical.
Figure 7. The training set of start of injection timing, rail
pressure and fuel ratio between main and pilot injection
Figure 8 shows the resulting fuel flow rate for the
perturbation test in figure 6, these data are employed in both
training and validation.
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Figure 8. The fuel flow rate data of both training and
validation for model prediction
NEURAL NETWORKS FOR FUEL
FLOW RATE MODELS
The field of virtual sensing has become more and more
popular, especially in the field of combustion engine control,
This is a direct response to ever increasing system
complexity; the requirement to precisely control many more
sub-systems and hence system response to input signals.
Many signals such as exhaust NOx and soot concentration
(selective catalytic reduction and diesel particulate filter
system control) are difficult and expensive to measure
reliably on a high-volume production engines for the service
life of the engine. In such situations, virtual sensor techniques
have been shown to provide a very convincing alternatives
[11]. Virtual sensors are characterized through black-box
approaches such as neural networks. In this work three types
of neural networks are used to predict fuel flow rate.
FEED-FORWARD STRUCTURE
The best known feed-forward network is the multilayer
perceptron. These networks have a number of node element
layers and have no connection between the node elements in
a particular layer [12]. One layer of nodes forms the input
layer while a second forms the output layer, with a number of
intermediate or hidden layers existing between them.
However, in many cases, only one, two or even no hidden
layers are employed. Figure 9 shows a multilayer feed-
forward neural network with three layers: an input layer, an
output layer and an intermediate or hidden layer. Neurons of
the input layer only act as buffers for sending the input signal
xi to the neurons of the hidden layer. Each neuron of the
hidden layer weights its input signal with the strength of the
1730 SAE Int. J. Engines | Volume 4 | Issue 1
respective connections wji, and sums it up, and then computes
its output yj as a function f of the sum:
(2)
here, f is activation function, which can be a simple threshold
function or a sigmoid, hyperbolic tangent or radial basis
function. The output value in the output layer is computed
similarly.
FEED-FORWARD WITH TIME DELAY
STRUCTURE
The first architecture is a simple feed-forward network
varying in size and depth defined by layer and neuron
numbers and the definition of transfer functions which can
have a considerable effect on output performance. The
interest in this structure lies in the feed-forward structure. In
order to catch some of the dynamics of the systems behavior
and its impact on the network performance, a feed-forward
network with input time delays is tested. The consideration of
previous inputs enables the network to map possible
dynamics in the systems behavior. This structure is
considered for its slight advantage over the previous due to its
possible incorporation of previous dynamics of the system.
NLARX STRUCTURE
The third model structure is an NLARX model. The output of
the model is feed back into the input layer. In addition, the
input allows consideration of previous inputs in order to
incorporate dynamics within the systems behavior. An
NLARX structure is shown in figure 10.
The chosen network structure or architecture is crucial for the
output performance. Depending on the systems characteristic
if linear or non-linear, static or dynamic; the network needs to
be designed accordingly. Here, the prediction of fuel flow
rate is known as highly dynamic and non-linear behavior, this
means a recurrent network structure could be chosen for
sufficient predictive results. The NLARX structure can take
into account the dynamics of the system by feeding previous
network outputs back into the input layer. It also enables the
user to define how many previous output and input time steps
are required for representing the systems dynamics best. In
this paper, a NLARX model is applied. It represents a
recurrent neural network, which fits the purpose of non-
linearity of the problem.
A typical structure of a NLARX model is illustrated in Figure
10. The inputs are represented by u(n) and the outputs are
described by y(n). The formulation of this NLARX model
can be described as:
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Figure 9. Neural network structures of a multilayer perceptron (MLP) as used in FF and FFTD networks

Figure 10. NLARX canonical structure

where is a training data set, y(k)

(3)
where ny is number of past output terms used to predict the
current output, nu is number of input terms used to predict the
current output.
This three kinds of neural model training problem can be cast
as a non-linear unconstrained optimization problem:
(4)
represents the measured fuel flow rate, is the
predicted fuel flow rate from the neural network NLARX
output, ||.||2 is 2-norm operation, and θ is a parameter vector.
The optimization problem minimizes the averaged distance
between the predicted fuel flow rate outputs and the target
fuel flow rate of training samples. Predicted fuel flow rate of
an NLARX model is a function of regressors which are
transformations of past inputs (past SOI, rail pressure and
fuel ratio) and past outputs (past fuel flow rate). Usually this
function has a linear block and a nonlinear block. The
predicted fuel flow rate of the model is the sum of the outputs

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of the two blocks. Typical regressors are simply delayed
input (delayed SOI, RP and FR) or output variables (delayed
fuel flow rate). More advanced regressors are in the form of
arbitrary user-defined functions of delayed input (delayed
SOI, RP and FR) and output variables (delayed fuel flow
rate).
THE TRAINING PROCESS AND
MINIMISING THE MODEL
STRUCTURE
For these three different neural networks, the best results are
obtained by using NLARX. Thus, NLARX will be used as an
example to illustrate the training and the structure selection
process.
The training process is as follows. Given a neural network
described by Equation (2), there is an error metric that is
referred to as performance index of Equation (3), which is to
be minimized. This index is a representation of the
approximation of the network to some given training patterns.
The task will be to modify the network parameters θ to
reduce the index FM (θ, ZM) over the complete trajectory to
achieve the minimal value. In this paper the neural networks
are trained using gradient descent algorithms while the initial
value of θ is perturbed several times in order to avoid the
local minimal solution. The gradient descent methods will
calculate the vector whose elements are
. The training algorithm will find the
parameters of the network for which the performance index
has reached a desirable value. Given a vectorising trajectory
for the network output and training patterns, the performance
index is the Euclidean norm of the error matrix of the whole
training batch for the output fuel flow rate.
Nonlinear regressor of the NLARX are chosen first in the fuel
meter modeling work. The fuel meter model is a single output
and multiple input problem. Thus, ny will be a single scalar
value, nu will be composed of inputs nu=[nu1 nu2… nuM],
where M is the number of inputs.
Theorem 1: For a specific nonlinear regressor of NLARX,
there must exist nu0 and ny0, such that for all nu and ny,
nu0< nu, ny0<ny For such nu0 and ny0, there exists a
parameters θ = θ0 for the fuel flow rate y(n):
(5)
However, the true orders of nu0 and ny0 are usually never
known. It will be exhaustive combination search for such
values. Such a search is not necessary as long as the fuel
1732 SAE Int. J. Engines | Volume 4 | Issue 1
meter model is in a reasonable size and could be used for real
time control purpose and measurement.
Based on such an assumption, the following theorem is used
to guide the structure choice process. It is the similar theorem
in [13] although the theorem is for a single input and single
output case in [13]. But it is easily adopted by this multi-input
single output fuel flow rate model.
Theorem 2: Consider the fuel flow rate model described by
,
there exist a NLARX model with identifiable θ, if and only if
min(nu- nu0, ny- ny0)=0.
With this theorem, the search for the fuel metermodels could
be simplified. With the order nu0 and ny0 of NLARX model,
we could take ny=nu1=nu2=… nuM for the giving structure.
By increasing one unit at a time the model will be found
where Theorem 2 holds.
In order to minimize the NLARX structure, the fuel flow rate
model is chosen by using following steps:
1. Choose nonlinear regressors, such as, such as tree-
partition networks, wavelet networks, and multi-layer neural
networks.
2. Choose ny and nu by using Theorem 1 to let
ny=nu1=nu2=… nuM, then increase one unit at a time for all
ny,nu1,nu2,… nuM, until the model reach the required
performance.
3. Reduce ny by one unit and compare the model
performance described by Equation 2.
4. If the performance is improved in (3), repeat the procedure
(2) until the model performance is worse.
5. Follow the same procedures of (3) and (4) for each of nu1,
nu2, …, nuM.
Using such procedure will keep the model size reasonable
small, so that model could be used for real time control and
measurement.
RESULTS FOR STEADY-STATE
SCENARIO
Three NN structures are used for the fuel flow rate model.
Each model structure is trained with the same training set and
validated against the same validation data. For each model
structure, the visual correlation between model output and the
desired data is given. In addition, a scatter plot showing the
linear regression of both signals is presented.
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FEED-FORWARD STRUCTURE
In this paper, the feed-forward structure is tested in order to
find a good and cost efficient fuel flow rate model. In
general, it can be stated that a bigger network causes higher
costs for training in order to find the optimal weight
assignment for close output prediction. Here, the network size
is increased in order to find the best network topology
describing the systems behavior.

Feed-forward neural networks could predict the trend of the

fuel rate signal. However, the correlation plots in figures 11
and 12 show that the networks cannot find a close correlation
of predicted and desired values. A three-layer feed-forward
neural network cannot overcome this weakness of the
network structure. For the correlation coefficient R2 for
training and validation a value of 0.93 is achieved. The
coefficient of determination R2 is defined by:

The correlation of predicted results with the output target is Figure 11. Data Correlation of FF two-layer network
realized with the correlation method coefficient of with [4 4 4] neurons and logistic transfer functions:
determination R2 that is expressed through: Visual correlation showing model output following
signal trend with correlation of R2=0.93 for training and
validation.

(6)

Where M is the length of the data set, y(n) describes the

measured data, the prediction and the mean value of
the output data. The coefficient of determination shows the
explained variability of the systems output by the regression
model. A result of R2=1 means an accurate model has been
found whereas with a R2 value of 0 there is no correlation
between the system and the model output. Although the
model detects the trend of the signal after load and speed
changes, a close value correlation between individual values
is not achieved as shown in figure 12. The slight increase of
hidden states does not improve the performance.

Although an important result of approximation theory states

that a three-layer feed-forward neural network with sigmoid
activation functions in the hidden layer and linear activation Figure 12. Data Correlation of FF three-layer network
functions in the output layer, has the ability to approximate with [4 4 4] neurons and logistic transfer functions:
any continuous mapping to arbitrary precision, provided that Linear regression between predicted output and desired
the number of units in the hidden layer is sufficiently large output.
[14]. However, possibly the performance of feed-forward
neural networks is limited due to the limitation of units
number in the hidden states, further limited by the memory of
personal computers.

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FEED-FORWARD WITH TIME-DELAY
STRUCTURE
As a result of the lack of correlation achieved by the simple
feed-forward structure, the time-delay functionality is applied
to the inputs. Figures 13 and 14 show the result for a three
layer network with 4 neurons per layer and logistic function
as transfer function. The R2 is equal 0.95 for training and
validation data and the visual correlation in figure 13 shows
that the network is able to predict the trend of the data during
load and speed changes.
Figure 13. Data Correlation of FFTD three-layer
network with [4 4 4] neurons and logistic transfer
functions: Visual correlation showing model output
following signal trend with correlation of R2=0.95 for
training and validation.
Figure 14. Data Correlation of FFTD three-layer
network with [4 4 4] neurons and logistic transfer
functions: Linear regression between predicted output
and desired output
1734 SAE Int. J. Engines | Volume 4 | Issue 1
However, there is a considerable noise introduction in figure
13 and a weak sample-to-sample correlation of predicted
samples in comparison to desired values in figure 14. The
feed-forward structure with input time-delays is not able to
create a direct sample relation between the inputs and the
output signal. It merely can create a relation describing the
trend between speed and load changes but not distinguish
between varying engine control settings and its influence on
the fuel meter signal.
NLARX STRUCTURE
The third structure tested is the NLARX network structure.
As described previously in the section describing the training
process and the minimizing the model structure, the
minimized NLARX is used.
The NLARX structure is able to find a relation between
inputs, outputs and previous samples as shown in figures 15
and 16. The close correlation is shown in the visual
correlation where not only the trend of the speed and load
changes is fit but also the high-frequent fuel rate changes.
This results in a R2 of 0.99 for both, training and validation
set. In addition, the prediction capability is also confirmed
through the linear regression plot where the samples show a
close fit to the regression line with just some few outliers. In
view of this result, the NLARX model is the best choice for
predicting the fuel rate signal over engine control setting
variances.
Figure 15. Data Correlation of NLARX two-layer
network with [4 4] neurons and logistic transfer
functions: Visual correlation showing close correlation
between desired and predicted output with correlation of
R2=0.99 for training and validation.
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Figure 16. Data Correlation of NLARX two-layer network with [4 4] neurons and logistic transfer functions: Linear regression
between predicted output and desired output

Figure 17. Comparison of best results of FF, FFTD and NLARX structures in steady-state scenario (Training and Validation)
against desired output

DISCUSSION ON RESULTS OF brown (feed-forward structure) line represent more of a trend

STEADY-STATE SCENARIO
The results show that the feed-forward structure with small
hidden states is not sufficient for mapping the input output
relation between the chosen inputs and the output of the NN.
The feed-forward structures predict the trend of the data
during speed and load changes. However, the accurate signal
prediction fails. The NLARX structure can provide a more
accurate solution as the linear regression fit shows and the
visual correlation. In figure 17 a comparison of a close-up
part of the signal is shown.
The blue line, the output of the NLARX structure, shows an
accurate correlation with the desired output signal. On the
other hand, the other signals of the feed-forward structures
represented through the red (feed-forward with delay) and
line following the desired output. Therefore, the conclusion
can be drawn that the feed-forward structure with small
hidden states lacks input information about the systems
behavior.
CONCLUSION
This paper demonstrates a comprehensive and detailed NN
modeling technique for engine application. The system
identification experiments are designed to collect informative
data for the steady state, where speed and load are fixed.
Different neural network structures are compared among
feed-forward NN, feed-forward NN with delays and NLARX.
The NLARX is the best structure for fuel flow rate
prediction. The training process is illustrated in the paper.
Also in order to keep the fuel flow rate model as simple as

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possible, which could be suitable for real-time control and
measurement purposes, the structure is minimized based on
neural network identifiable properties. This paper shows that
NLARX could predict fuel flow rate accurately with R-square
above 0.99. Accurate fuel flow rate estimation is very
important for predicting CO2 emissions as the co2 emission
is proportional to the fuel consumption, which varies with the
speed.
The test presents the best structure for the prediction of fuel
rate based on engine control. The engine control parameters:
SOI, RP and FR, are randomly changed. It is shown that feed-
forward structures can predict a trend of fuel rate but not
accurately map the input-output relation. The feed-forward
structures fail to accurately predict the fuel meter signal.
The next step is the implementation of the chosen network
structure in the engine test cell and develop the fuel flow rate
model in a transient cycles, such as, Non road transient cycle.
The prediction of fuel rate over refill drops of the fuel meter
enables a more stable and reliable calculation of Air-to-Fuel
Ratio. In addition, this parameter can be integrated into
control strategies for fuel economy improvement or emission
reduction. Such a non-linear model is capable of supporting
diagnosis processes as well as being a fast model for controls
design and evaluation.
REFERENCES
1. Ebner, H. and Köck, K., “New Fuel Mass Flow Meter - A
Modern and Reliable Approach to Continuous and Accurate
Fuel Consumption Measurement,” SAE Technical Paper
2000-01-1330, 2000, doi:10.4271/2000-01-1330.
2. Mohtasebi, S. and Hong, H., “Low Cost Electronically
Controlled Fuel Metering System for Small Gas Turbine
Engines,” SAE Technical Paper 1999-01-0545, 1999, doi:
10.4271/1999-01-0545.
3. Wu, B., Prucka, R., Filipi, Z., Kramer, D. et al., “Cam-
phasing Optimization Using Artificial Neural Networks as
Surrogate Models-Fuel Consumption and NOx Emissions,”
SAE Technical Paper 2006-01-1512, 2006, doi:
10.4271/2006-01-1512.
4. He, Y. and Rutland, C.J., “Application of Artificial Neural
Networks in Engine Modeling,” International Journal of
Engine Research, 5(4), 281-296, 2004.
5. Maass, B., Deng, J., and Stobart, R. K., “Prediction of
Smoke Emissions of a Heavy Duty Diesel Engine with a
NLARX Model,” American Control Conference, 2009.
6. Bose, N. and Kumar, N. S., “Prediction of Engine
Emissions Through Fuzzy Logic Modelling,” International
Conference on Computational Intelligence and Multimedia
Applications, 2007.
7. Schilling, A., Amstutz, A., Onder, C. H., and Guzzella, L.,
“A real-Time Model for the Prediction of the NOx Emissions
1736 SAE Int. J. Engines | Volume 4 | Issue 1
in DI Diesel Engines,” Proceedings of the IEEE International
Conference on Control Applications, Munich, Germany, Oct.,
2006.
8. AVL 733S Operator Manual.
9. Winward, E., Deng, J., and Stobart, R., “Innovations In
Experimental Techniques For The Development of Fuel Path
Control In Diesel Engines,” SAE Int. J. Fuels Lubr. 3(1):
594-613, 2010, doi:10.4271/2010-01-1132.
10. Deng, J., Winward, E., Stobart, R., and Desai, P.,
“Modeling Techniques to Support Fuel Path Control in
Medium Duty Diesel Engines,” SAE Technical Paper
2010-01-0332, 2010, doi:10.4271/2010-01-0332.
11. Maass, B., Stobart, R., and Deng, J., “Diesel Engine
Emissions Prediction Using Parallel Neural Networks,”
American Control Conference, 2009.
12. Haykin, S., “Neural Networks - A Comprehensive
Foundation;” Prentice Hall Inc., Second edition; 1999.
13. Ljung, L., “System Identification-Theory for User,”
Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, 1999, 1999,
14. Funahashi, K., “On the Approximate Realization of
Continuous Mappings by Neural Networks,” Neural
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CONTACT INFORMATION
Jiamei Deng is with the Department of Aeronautical and
Automotive Engineering, Loughborough University, UK. Her
email address is: j.deng@lboro.ac.uk.
Bastian Maass is with the Department of Aeronautical and
Automotive Engineering, Loughborough University, UK. His
email address is: b.maass@lboro.ac.uk.
Richard Stobart is with the Department of Aeronautical and
Automotive Engineering, Loughborough University, UK. His
email address is: r.k.stobart@lboro.ac.uk.
Ed Winward is with the Department of Aeronautical and
Automotive Engineering, Loughborough University, UK. His
email address is: r.e.t.b.winward@lboro.ac.uk.
Zhijia Yang is with the Department of Aeronautical and
Automotive Engineering, Loughborough University, UK. Her
email address is: z.vang2@lboro.ac.uk.
DEFINITIONS/ABBREVIATIONS
SOI
Start Of Injection
RP
Common Rail Pressure
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FR
Fuel Ratio between main and total fuel injected

NN
Neural Network

NLARX
Non-Linear AutoregRessive model with eXogenous
inputs

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