Extraction of peak pressure position information from the spark-plug ionization signal

Abstract

The possibility of constructing an indirect measurement algorithm of in-cylinder peak pressure position in a combustion engine based on ionization signal processing is investigated; indeed, automobile manufacturers are in need of low cost combustion diagnoses to enhance engine control. To this end, a procedure for high dimensional data analysis derived as an extension of exploratory projection pursuit is described and shown to be a profitable tool. Finally, results, which demonstrate the quality and the stability of the low complexity αP(max) estimator we derived, are presented for a wide range of engine states. © 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.