Steady-state and transient control strategies for a two-stage turbocharged diesel engine

Two-stage turbocharging technology is widely used to achieve higher engine power density and lower exhaust emissions. To solve a series of contradictions in matching, a regulated two-stage (RTS) turbocharging system is applied to reasonably control boost pressure. This paper investigated steady-state and transient control strategies for an RTS turbocharging system to achieve optimum fuel economy in steady-state conditions and better performance in transient conditions. The economic control strategies for steady-state operational conditions were based on an economic regulation law, which was established by a steady-state test of an engine with an RTS turbocharging system under all operating conditions. To optimize the transient performance, open-loop and closed-loop control systems (the latter with dynamic judgement) for the RTS system were designed and validated with experiments on a heavy-duty diesel engine. The experimental results demonstrated that the open-loop control strategy and the closed-loop strategy with dynamic judgement could improve the transient response performance. The optimum transient response performance was achieved by the closed-loop control system with dynamic judgement. Additionally, the combination of steady-state and transient control strategies could achieve the best fuel economy in steady-state conditions and good transient response performances.