Design of SpeedGControl Loop of A Variable Speed

Diesel Engine Generator by Electric Governor

Seung-Hwan Lee, Jung-Sik Yim, Joon-Hwan Lee Seung-Ki Sul

School of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science #24 School of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science #24
ENG-420, Seoul National University Gwanak P.O.Box 34 ENG-420, Seoul National University Gwanak P.O.Box 34
Seoul, Korea. Seoul, Korea.
s98seung@eepel.snu.ac.kr sulsk@plaza.snu.ac.kr

Abstract Electric governors are widely used in diesel engine

24V DSP Control Board
+
applications. And a Proportional, Integral and Derivative(PID) -
iactuator
controllers runs the electric governor in order to control the iab 6 8
Electric iuvw
engine speed. However, it is difficult to analyze the system Governor real
stability due to the non-linear characteristics of the diesel engine, Actuator
Resolver
3 +
3
and as a result, the PID controller should be tuned by trial-and- PM - L
DIESEL N
Vdc Grid
error approach. ENGINE . S +
L

In this paper, a locally linearized diesel engine model is - L

PMSG
proposed based on the experimentally obtained engine torque PWM Inverter PWM Boost
map, and the proposed model is verified by simulations and Rectifier

experiments. Through the simulations and experiments it is (a)

concluded that the proposed model can be used in the system
analysis and so to determine the PID controller gains.
Keywords - diesel engine; speed control; electric governor;
stability; torque map;

I. INTRODUCTION
A diesel engine is the most common solution for the
distributed power generating systems due to its superior fuel
efficiency compared to the other types of internal combustion
engines. In conventional diesel engine systems, a fly-wheel
type governor which is mechanically synchronized with the
engine crankshaft has been widely used to control engine
speed [1]. However, the electric governor gradually extends its
use in the various applications because of its higher control
performance, simple structure, and maintenance free
characteristics.
In industries, a Proportional, Integral, and Derivative (PID)
speed controller is usually used for the electric governor. In
spite of the popular use of the PID controller, however, still the
system is not theoretically analyzed and repetitive trials and
errors are required in order to tune the controller. That is
because of the nonlinear characteristics of the engine torque
and severe time delay caused by discrete fuel sampling effect
[2]. In order to manage the problem, previous studies have
proposed several types of speed controller; and they are based
on the methods of H [3], Linear Parameter Varying (LPV)
[4], gain scheduling [5], fuzzy [6-8], and neural network [9],
etc. However, they still need cumbersome tuning efforts in
spite of their complex calculating procedures; because they are
based on simple engine model which considers only the time
delay effect and ignores the other nonlinear characteristics of
the diesel engine.
In this paper, a diesel engine for 26kW distributed power
generating system is tested. From the repeated tests, a
(b) (c)
Fig 1. Implemented distributed power generating system (a) Block diagram of
overall system (b) Photo of the diesel engine-generator set (c) Photo of PWM
inverter and boost rectifier set.
nonlinear engine torque map, which can be expressed as a
function of the electric governor current and the engine speed,
is obtained. And then a locally linearized engine model is
proposed based on the nonlinear engine torque map. The
proposed engine model is used to analyze the system and tune
the PID controller gains. The effectiveness of the proposed
linearized model and stability analysis using the model are
verified by simulations and experiments.
II. CHARACTERISTICS OF A DIESEL ENGINE
A. Experimental Setup
Fig 1. (a) shows the entire block diagram of experimental
system. A 26kW diesel engine is mechanically coupled with a
Surface Mounted Permanent Magnet Synchronous Machine
(SMPMSM) generator. A PWM inverter controls power flow
from the generator, and a PWM boost rectifier controls power
flow to the grid side. A buck converter is implemented in order
to control the current of the governor coil and so the quantity
of fuel injection. All the controllers are programmed in a
digital controller, which is implemented with TIs
TMS320VC33 DSP.

978-1-4244-2279-1/08/$25.00 2008 IEEE 1

 TABLE I.
SPECIFICATIONS OF THE DIESEL ENGINE AND THE SMPMSM GENERATOR rm
* Speed i* Current
Electric
Diesel Engine Diesel Engine rm
Controller Controller Combustion Rotating
Governor
Diesel Engine SMPMSM Generator rm (PID)
i (PI) System
TL
System

Prated 26 kW Prated 22 kW Controller Plant

rated 1800 r/min rated 1800 r/min (a)
Displacement Volume 3,268 cc VLL_rated 380 Vrms
d s
Number of Cylinders 4 ILL_rated 40 Arms Kd
s + d
Aspiration Naturally Rs 47 m
Fuel Injection Direct Ls 2.2 mH rm
*
Kp
Compression Ratio 17.5:1 Number of Poles 12 i
rm 1
Ki
s
(b)

Fig 3. Block diagram of engine speed control system (a) Block diagram of speed
controller with electric governor and diesel engine (b) Implemented PID speed
controller
B. Engine Torque Map
In this paper, an engine torque map is defined as a function
of the engine output torque which is expressed with the engine
speed and the governor current. In order to get the engine
torque map, the generator is operated in speed control mode by
the PWM inverter and the engine is operated with some fixed
governor currents. With the assumption that the estimated
torque in the generator side can be considered as the engine
torque, then the engine torque with various operating
conditions can be measured. The three dimensional engine
(a) torque map obtained from repeated experiments is presented in
150 Fig 2 (a), and its two dimensional expression is shown in Fig 2
(b).
As presented in Fig 2 (b), it is obvious that the output
engine torque increases linearly when the governor current
Engine Torque (Nm)

100
increases and the engine speed is fixed, because the injected
fuel quantity is proportional to the governor current. However,
50
the torque is different when the engine speed increases and the
governor current is fixed, because the heat transfer ratio and
the friction are varied according to the speed.
0
Governor
Current
Increase III. SPEED CONTROL OF THE DIESEL ENGINE WITH AN
-50 ELECTRIC GOVERNOR

A. PID Controller
-100
80 100 120 140 160 180 200 Fig 3 (a) is a control block diagram of the electric governor.
Engine Speed (rad/s)
The engine is operated in speed control mode through the
(b) electric governor and the generator is operated in torque
Fig 2. Nonlinear diesel engine torque map (a) Three dimensional control mode by the PWM inverter. The controllers are
representation of torque map (b) Two dimensional representation of torque constructed in the cascaded manner; and the current regulation
map loop of the electric governor is the inner loop and the speed
regulation loop of the diesel engine is the outer loop. In the
The switching and sampling frequency of the whole system cascaded structure, the transfer function of the inner loop can
is 16 kHz. Fig 1 (b) and (c) shows photos of the diesel engine, be considered as a unity when the inner loop is 5 times or more
PWM inverter and PWM boost rectifier set. And detailed faster than the outer loop.
specifications of the diesel engine and SMPMSM generator are
listed in Table I.

2
 2000 Disturbance

real ref Kc Kr
1+ Tf s 1 + Tr s
1600 (Combustion System ) (Rotating System)
[r/min]
(a)

1s/div rm
1200 n2 1 rm
(a) s +
2
2 n s + n2 Js
i*
real ref 1700 Nonlinear
Torque Map
Engine Delay
TLoad
(b)

C
1300
[r/min]

n2 1 
Ci
1s/div i s + 2 n s + n2
2 Js
900 Engine Delay
TL
(b) (c)
Fig 5. Diesel engine speed simulation models (a) Conventional diesel engine
Fig 4. Diesel engine speed response for K p =1, K i =0.8, K d =0.08 model (b) Diesel engine model with nonlinear torque map and time delay (c)
Proposed locally linearized engine model
(a) * =1600r/min (b) * =1300r/min

The speed controller is a PID controller and the block 140

diagram is presented in Fig 3 (b). As shown in Fig 3 (b), the
derivative term is implemented as a 1st order high-pass filter 120
Total Summation of Error Rate

instead of a pure derivative in order to suppress the effect of

the measurement noise. Then the transfer function of the speed 100
controller can be expressed as follows,
80
( K p + K d d ) s + ( K i + K p d ) s + K i d *
2
i* = ( ) . (1)
s ( s + d )
60
Experimental results with the speed controller at two
different engine speeds are presented in Fig 4 (a) and (b). The 40
engine speed reference is 1,600 r/min in Fig 4 (a) and 1,300
r/min in Fig 4 (b) respectively. And the PID gains are set to 20
K p =1, K i =0.8, and K d =0.08 in both experiments. Even
0
though all experimental conditions of the engine except the 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
speed reference are same, the system shows different stability Order of Polynomial
performance. This is because of the nonlinearity of the engine Fig 6. Total summation of error rate according to the order of polynomial fitting
torque characteristics. However, conventional diesel engine
model, which is shown in Fig 5 (a), cannot explain this speed And each Te curve in Fig 2 (b) can be fitted in a sixth order
control characteristic because it ignores the nonlinearity polynomial as presented in (3),
between the engine torque and the governor current. Te = f1 ( i gov ) rm
6
+ f 2 ( i gov )rm
5
+ f 3 ( i gov ) rm
4
+ f4 ( i gov ) rm
3

B. Locally Linearized Model . (3)

The engine torque map in Fig 2 (a) and (b) can be + f5 ( i gov ) rm
2
+ f6 ( i gov ) rm + f7 ( i gov )
expressed as a function of the governor current and the In Fig. 6, the total summation of error rate is presented
operating speed, according to the order of the polynomial fitting. As shown in
Te = Te ( i gov , rm ) , (2) Fig. 6, the total summation of error rate is almost same when
the order of polynomial is larger than 5. Therefore, sixth order
where i gov is the governor current and rm is the engine speed. polynomial fitting is chosen in this paper

3
 at 800r/min at 1100r/min
200 200
d s C
Kd
100 100 s + d
Engine Output Torque(Nm)

0
Kp Ci n2 1 
0 0
i s + 2n s + n2
2 Js
 Ki 1 Engine Delay
TL
-100 -100 s
1.6 1.62 1.64 1.66 1.6 1.62 1.64 1.66

at 1500r/min at 1800r/min Locally Linearized Model

PID Speed Controller
200 200

Fig 8. Speed control system with locally linearized engine model.

100 100

0 0

-100 -100
1.6 1.62 1.64 1.66 1.6 1.62 1.64 1.66

pGh
Governor Current(A)
Fig 7. Engine output torque vs. governor current for various speed condition.
In Fig. 7, the engine output torque is plotted according to
the governor current at some fixed engine speeds. It is shown
that the engine output torque is a linear function of the
governor current when the engine speed is constant. Therefore,
it can be concluded that the coefficients of (3) can be
expressed as the first order function of i gov as follows,
(a)
f1 = p11 i gov + p12 , f 2 = p21 i gov + p22 , f 3 = p31 igov + p32 ,
f 4 = p41 i gov + p42 , f 5 = p51 i gov + p52 , f 6 = p61 igov + p62 , . (4)
f 7 = p71 i gov + p72

For small signal analysis, i gov and rm can be decomposed

as a small signal term and a large constant term at a specific
operating condition as follows,
i gov = iop + i , rm = op +  (5)
where iop , op are the large constant terms and i ,  are the
small signal terms. From (3), (4), (5) and using small signal
analysis, Te can be expressed as a linear function of i and  (b)
as follows, Fig 9. Pole-zero plot of equation (7) when K p =1, K i =0.8, K d =0.08
Te = Ci i + C  , (6)
(a) * =1600r/min (b) * =1300r/min.
where
C i = ( p11 op
6
+ p21 op
5
+ p31 op
4
+ p41 op
3
+ p51 op
2
+ p61 op + p71 ) z2 = Cin2 ( Kd d + K p ), z1 = Cin2 ( K pd + K i ), z0 = Cin2 K id ,
p5 = J , p4 = J (d + 2n ), p3 = J n (2d + n ),
C = {6 op
5
( p11 iop + p12 ) + 5 op
4
( p21 iop + p22 ) + 4 op
3
( p31 iop + p32 )
. p2 = n2 ( J d C K t + Ci Kd d + Ci K p ), p1 = n (Ci K pd Cd + Ci Ki ),
2
+ 3 op
2
( p41 iop + p42 ) + 2 op ( p51 iop + p52 ) + ( p61 iop + p62 )}
p0 = Cin2 Kid .
The values of C i and C are determined according to the
nominal values of the engine speed and governor current. Fig 5 Fig 9 (a) and (b) show the pole zero plots of (7) when the
(b) is a block diagram of the system considering nonlinear
PID gains are K p =1, K i =0.8 and K d =0.08, and the engine
model of engine. Using the proposed method, the system in
Fig 5 (b) can be transformed into a linearized model as shown speed reference is set to * =1,600 r/min and * =1,300 r/min
in Fig 5 (c). respectively. PID gains and the engine speeds are the same as
C. System Analysis and Verification those used in the experiments of Fig 4 (a) and (b). As
With the block diagram of Fig 8, the transfer function of presented in Fig 9 (a) and (b), pole-zero plots using the
the system can be expressed as follows, proposed linearized model properly explain that the system is
z2 s 2 + z1 s + z0 stable at * =1,600 r/min while it becomes unstable at
= (7)
*
p5 s + p4 s + p3 s 3 + p2 s 2 + p1 s + p0
5 4 * =1,300 r/min.
, where

4
 wTGt And the proposed model can be used to set the PID gain
]
with well-known gain setting method such as root locus or
[ bode plot analysis. Proportional, integral and derivative gains
Y are selected as 4, 0.8 and 0.3 respectively. Fig 10 (a) and (b)
are the pole-zero plot of the system with the selected PID
W
gains, and the engine speed reference is set to 1,600r/min and
TY 1,300r/min respectively. As shown in Fig 10 (b), the right half
T[ plane poles in Fig 9 (b) are moved to the left half plane, and
the system becomes stable with the new PID gains. After
T]
T[ TZ TY TX W X Y analyzing the system with the new gains at various speeds, it is
yGh concluded that the new gains can make the system stable in the
(a) whole operating speeds. The pole-zero plot of this system for
various speed setting is presented in Fig 11.
The experimental results with the new gains are presented
in Fig 12. As shown in Fig 12, the system remains stable at all
operating points. Therefore, it can be concluded that the
proposed linear model well explains the system dynamics, and
in addition, the gains of the controller can be tuned
systematically.
IV. CONCLUSION
In this paper, a diesel engine is tested in a distributed
power generating system, and a nonlinear engine torque map is
obtained from the repeated tests. Then a locally linearized
(b) engine model is proposed using the engine torque map, and
Fig 10. Pole-zero plot of equation (7) when K p =4, K i =0.8, K d =0.3 stability analysis is presented based on the linearized model.
The effectiveness of the proposed model and its stability
(a) * =1600r/min (b) * =1300r/min. analysis are verified by the experiments. In addition, it is
presented that the proposed model can be used to tune the PID
Pole-Zero Map speed controller systematically. As a result, the system remains
6 stable at over all operating speed just with a fixed gain PID
speed controller.
4

2
Imaginary Axis

REFERENCES
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0 Electronic Speed Regulation of A Diesel Engine, Intl Conf. on
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-6 for Diesel Engine Systems, Intl Conf. on Power System Technology,
-2.5 -2 -1.5 -1 -0.5 0
vol.1, pp.61-66, Dec.2000.
Real Axis
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2200
real [6] Heui-Han Yoo, A Model Reference Adaptive Speed Control of Marine
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Fig 12. Experimental result of speed control with K p =4 K i =0.8, K d =0.3.