Friday, 7 December 2018

CAMLESS ENGINE



CAMLESS ENGINE





                                                In internal combustion engine with pistons the camshaft is used to operate poppet valve. It consists of a cylindrical rod running the length of the cylinder bank with a number of oblong lobes protruding from it, one for each valve. The cam lobes force the valves open by pressing on the valve, or on some intermediate mechanism, as they rotate. The cam has been an integral part of the IC engine from its invention. The cam controls the “breathing channels” of the IC engines, that is, the valves through which the fuel air mixture (in SI engines) or air (in CI engines) is supplied and exhaust driven out. Besieged by demands for better fuel economy, more power, and less pollution, motor engineers around the world are pursuing a radical “camless” design that promises to deliver the internal – combustion engine’s biggest efficiency improvement in years. The aim of all this effort is liberation from a constraint that has handcuffed performance since the birth of the internal-combustion engine more than a century ago. 


 Camless engine technology is soon to be a reality for commercial vehicles. In the camless valve train, the valve motion is controlled directly by a valve actuator – there’s no camshaft or connecting mechanisms. Precise electrohydraulic camless valve train controls the valve operations, opening, closing etc., its general features and benefits over conventional engines.  The engines powering today’s vehicles, whether they burn gasoline or diesel fuel, rely on a system of valves to admit fuel and air to the cylinders and let exhaust gases escape after combustion. Rotating steel camshafts with precision-machined egg-shaped lobes, or cams, are the hard-tooled “brains” of the system. They push open the valves at the proper time and guide their closure, typically through an arrangement of pushrods, rocker arms, and other hardware. Stiff springs return the valves to their closed position. In an overhead-camshaft engine, a chain or belt driven by the crankshaft turns one or two camshafts located atop the cylinder head.
                     
                           A single overhead camshaft (SOHC) design uses one camshaft to
move rockers that open both inlet and exhaust valves. The double overhead camshaft (DOHC), or twin-cam, setup does away with the rockers and devotes one camshaft to the inlet valves and the other to the exhaust valves.
                     To eliminate the cam, camshaft and other connected mechanisms, the Camless engine makes use of three vital components – the sensors, the electronic control unit and the actuator Mainly five sensors are used in connection with the valve operation. One for sensing the speed of the engine, one for sensing the load on the engine, exhaust gas sensor, valve position sensor and current sensor. The sensors will send signals to the electronic control unit.




                                        The electronic control unit consists of a microprocessor, which is provided with a software algorithm. The microprocessor issues signals to the solid-state circuitry based on this algorithm, which in turn controls the actuator, to function according to the requirements.




An electro hydraulic camless valve train was developed for a camless engine. Initial development confirmed its functional ability to control the valve timing, lift, velocity, and event duration, as well as to perform selectively variable deactivation in a four-valve multicylinder engine. The system employs the hydraulic pendulum principle, which contributes to low hydraulic energy consumption. The electro hydraulic valve train is integral with the cylinder head, which lowers the head height and improves the engine packaging. Review of the benefits expected from a camless engine points to substantial improvements in performance, fuel economy, and emissions over and above what is achievable in engines with camshaft-based valve trains.


                                                                        











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