Development of a new fully flexible hydraulic variable valve actuation system for engines using rotary spool valves

In this paper, a new hydraulic variable valve actuation (VVA) system is proposed and designed. The VVA system can significantly improve the engine performance in terms of the power density, volumetric efficiency, emission, and fuel consumption. In this system, each engine valve is actuated by a hydraulic cylinder which is charged and discharged using two rotary spool valves. The rotary spool valves are rotated by the engine crankshaft while their phases are controlled by hydraulic or electric phase shifters. Similar to camless valvetrains, the new engine valve system is capable of flexible engine valve timing and lift at any engine speed without the drawbacks of existing camless valvetrains including high control complexity, low reliability, and slow actuator response. The mathematical model of the system is derived and verified by comparing simulation and experimental results. Two feedback controllers are designed and implemented for precise valve opening and closing timing and valve lift control. Experiments are performed to validate the mathematical model and evaluate the proposed system's performance. The results show excellent system repeatability and controllability at different operating conditions.