CAMLESS ENGINE

Sham Varughese
ME B S7
Contents
• Introduction
• Working of push rod engine
• Overview of Camless engine
• Electro Hydraulic Camless Valve Train
• Design Approach For Camless Engine
• Components of camless engine
• Comparative Analysis
• Camless Development
• Advantages
• Conclusion
• Reference
Introduction
• I C engine is a device which converts the heat energy into mechanical
energy.
• Cam has been integral part of the IC engine from its invention.
• Cam controls the “breathing channels” of the IC engine ie, the valves.
• Besieged by demands for better fuel economy, more power, and less
pollution, motor engineers around the world are pursuing a radical
“camless”design.
Contd..
• Handcuffed performance since the birth of the IC engine
• Precise electrohydraulic camless valve train controls the valve operations,
opening, closing etc.
• Camless engine technology is soon to be a reality for commercial vehicles.
Working Of Push Rod Engine
• Pushrod engines have been installed in cars since the dawn of the horseless
carriage.
• Rod that goes from the camshaft to the top of the cylinder head.
• Each cylinder of a pushrod engine has 2 arms;
bring the fuel air mixture
lets exhaust gas escape after the engine fires
Crankshaft
 Engine component from which the power is taken.
 The crankshaft assembly includes the crankshaft and bearings, the
flywheel, vibration damper, sprocket or gear to drive camshaft and
oil seals at the front and rear.
Camshaft
 Provides a means of actuating the opening and controlling the
valves
 It also provides a drive for the ignition distributor and the
mechanical fuel pump
Working
When the crank shaft turn the cam shaft the cam lobs come up under the
valve lifter and cause the lifter to move upwards.
The upward push is carried by the pushrods through the rocker arm. The
rocker arm is pushed by the pushrod, the other end moves down.
 This pushes down on the valve stem and cause it to move down thus
opening the port.
 When the cam lobe moves out from under the valve lifter, the valve spring
pulls the valve back upon its seat.
 At the same time stem pushes up on the rocker arm, forcing it to rock
back.
 This pushes the push rods and the valve lifter down, thus closing the valve.
The figure shows cam-valve arrangement in conventional engines
Disadvantages
• The timing of the engine is dependent on the shape and the rotational
velocity.
• Decisions early in the automobile development.
• Compromise between fuel efficiency and engine power.
• Limited to discrete valve timing changes over a limited range.
Overview
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.

Electronic
Sensor Control Actuators
Unit
• Mainly five sensors are used in connection with the valve operation.
 One for sensing the speed of the engine,
 load on the engine,
 exhaust gas sensor,
 valve position sensor
 and current sensor.
• The sensors will send signals to the ECU.
• The ECU consists of a microprocessor.
• The microprocessor issues signals to the circuitry which in turn controls the
actuator, to function according to the requirements.
Electro Hydraulic Camless Valve Train
• Elastic properties of a compressed hydraulic fluid
• Principle of working is
“conversion of potential energy into kinetic energy and, then, back into
potential energy”.
Properties of EHCV
• The hydraulic pendulum is a spring less system.
• Due to the absence of springs, the valve moves with constant
acceleration and deceleration.
• Much smaller net driving force, than in systems which use springs
Dynamic characteristics of hydraulic pendulum.
Valve motion control
• Varying timing of the engine valve opening and closing.
• Valve lift can be controlled.
• Control of the valve acceleration, velocity, and travel time.
• The valve can be deactivated during engine operation.
• Increasing the number of valves in each cylinder does not require a
corresponding increase in the number of solenoid valves.
• The single pair of solenoid valves control several valves running in-
parallel.
Unequal Lift Modifier
• To enhance the ability to vary the intake air motion in the engine cylinder
• In a four-cylinder engine there is a total of eight control chambers
connected to eight pairs of valves.
• For each pair, the volumes below the hydraulic pistons are connected to
the high pressure reservoir
• Solenoids and check valves are connected to a common control chamber
serving both valves
• The rod is installed in the cylinder head between the two intake valves
• A cutout in the rod forms a communication chamber connected to the
volumes below the hydraulic pistons of both intake valves.
• The communication chamber is always connected to the high pressure
reservoir.
Design Approach For Camless Engine
• The camless engine was created on the basis of an existing four-cylinder,
four-valve engine.
• A new cylinder head assembly fully integrated with the camless valve train.
• The camshaft drive was eliminated
• A belt-driven hydraulic pump was added.
• No need for lubrication
• No other changes to the engine have been made.
 Components Of Camless Engine
1. Engine valve –
• The valve piston is attached to the top of the valve, and
both the valve and the piston can slide inside a sleeve...
• Tight hydraulic clearance between the valve and the
sleeve
• All the forces acting on the valve are directed along its
axis.
• Circulation of hydraulic fluid
2. Solenoid valve –
• The solenoid has conically shaped magnetic
poles.
• A strong spring is attached.
• Hydraulic energy loss is the greatest during the
closing
• The faster the solenoid closure, the better the
energy recovery.
• The valve lift and the seat diameter are selected
to minimize the hydraulic loss
• Both high-pressure and low-pressure solenoid
valves are of the same design.
 Hydraulic System
• The high-pressure and the low-pressure reservoirs are connected to high-
and the low-pressure solenoids and the check valves.
1. High pressure pump:
• a low-cost variable capacity pump.
• The pump has a single eccentric-driven plunger
• And a single normally-open solenoid valve.
• Varying the duration of the solenoid voltage pulse varies the quantity of
the high-pressure fluid delivered
2. Low pressure pump –
• A small electrically driven pump picks up oil from the sump and delivers it
to the inlet of the main pump.
• Any excess oil pumped by the small pump returns to the sump through a
low-pressure regulator.
• A check valve 1 assures that the inlet to the main pump is not subjected to
pressure fluctuations that occur in the low-pressure reservoir
Comparative Analysis Between Cam And
Cam-less Valve Actuation
• The intake system of an internal combustion engine (cam or camless)
consists of the air filter, carburettor, the throttle plate, intake manifold,
intake port, and intake valve.
• These restrict the amount of air which an engine of a given displacement
can induct.
• The parameter used to measure the effectiveness of an engine’s induction
process is the volumetric efficiency.
Volumetric Efficiency
• referred to as the breathing capacity of the engine
• If the mass of air retention inside the cylinder is considered, volumetric
efficiency is defined as,

where, ρair is the density of air (kgm-3),

vd is the displaced volume (m3 ) and
N is the engine speed (revolution per minutes),
and nc number of revolutions per cycle.
• The mass flow rate of air in above equation, has the following expression ,

where, va is the velocity of suction air and A is the area under the lift curve
of both cam and camless engines
• Hence, for a four-stroke engine we can rewrite volumetric equation as
• Volumetric efficiencies were computed for speed values of 1000rpm to
3000rpm and graphically depicted
Discussion of Results
• Volumetric efficiency considered here uses mass of air retention inside the
cylinder.
• The system with the largest area for a specific height (h) and time (t) will be
more efficient.
• The camless system will always have more air retention due to larger area
compare to the cam system.
• This makes the former better than the later at all engine speeds.
Advantages Of Camless Engine
• Continuously variable and independent control of all aspects of valve
motion.
• Independent scheduling of valve lift, valve open duration, and placement.
• Capable of controlling the valve velocity, perform selective valve
deactivation, and vary the activation frequency.
• Lift and duration can be changed almost infinitely to suit changing loads
and driving conditions
• The promise is less pollution, better fuel economy and performance.
• Fuel economy of almost 7- 10% by proper and efficient controlling of the
valve lifting and valve timing.
• Considerable reduction in the engine size and weight.
• The better breathing at low engine speeds can yield 10% to 15% more
torque.
• Reduced exhaust gas HC emissions during cold start and warm-up
operation.
Camless Development
• Camless valve trains have long been investigated by several companies,
including Renault, BMW, Fiat, Valeo, General Motors, Ricardo, Lotus
Engineering, Ford, Jiangsu Gongda Power Technologies and Koenigsegg's
sister company FreeValve
• In November 2016, Chinese automobile manufacturer Qoros Auto
displayed the Qoros 3, which showcased a new Qoros ‘Qamfree’ engine.
• The engine's Swedish designer FreeValve claims that the 1.6-litre (98 cu in)
turbocharged engine will produce 170 kW (230 hp) and 320 N⋅m (240 lb⋅ft)
of torque"
• They also claim that, compared to a similar traditional engine, it offers a
1. 50% reduction in size (including a 50 mm (2.0 in) lower height)
2. 30% reduction in weight
3. 30% improvement in power and torque
4. 30% improvement in fuel economy
5. 50% reduction in emissions.
Conclusions
• Initial development of EHCV 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.
• Hydraulic pendulum principle, which contributes to low hydraulic energy
consumption.
• Lowers the head height and improves the engine packaging.
• Substantial improvements in performance, fuel economy, and emissions
over and above what is achievable in engines with camshaft-based valve
trains.
Contd..
• The development of a camless engine with an electro hydraulic valve train
described here is only a first step towards a complete engine optimization.
• Further research and development are needed to take full advantage of
this system exceptional flexibility.
References
[1] "A Novel Design of Pneumatic Actuator for Camless Engines," Venkatesh, D. and Selvakumar,
A., SAE Technical Paper,2016-01-0099, 2016, doi:10.4271/2016-01-0099.
[2] “A Review Study on Working of Electrohydraulic Camless Engine”,Gagandeep Singh Mavi,
Dinesh Kumar
[3] “Comparative Analysis Between Cam and Cam-less Valve Actuating for Automotive System”,
Aliyu Bhar Kisabo, Musa James Ibrahim, Opasina Ayodele Oluwafemi
[4] Design and Performance Evaluation of an Electro-Hydraulic Camless Engine Valve Actuator for
Future Vehicle Applications, Kanghyun Nam , Kwanghyun Cho, Sang-Shin Park 1 and Seibum B.
Choi
[5]Design of Innovative Engine Valve: Background and Need, S. M. Muzakkir*, M. G. Patil and
Harish Hirani
[6] Production Electro-Hydraulic Variable Valve-Train for a New Generation of I.C. Engines ,Jeff
Allen and Don Law,Lotus Engineering
THANK YOU