Natural gas engine model for speed and air-fuel control

With the low price of natural gas, and its low emissions, significant market growth for natural gas engines is likely in various applications. There are multiple challenges in controlling a natural gas engine, especially a pre-mixed lean burn natural gas engine. In particular, the system dynamics includes long fuel and air transport delays. In terms of natural gas engine control, our main focus is on engine speed control, engine output torque control, air/fuel ratio and emission regulation. In order to facilitate control study and development, we develop a control-oriented turbocharged pre-mixed lean burn natural gas engine mean value model (MVM). This model is designated for natural gas engine controller design, control algorithm development, and first step validation. The model is implemented in the MATLAB (R) Simulink (R) environment. The model is validated with a 10L natural gas engine for power generation applications.