Relative phase control in a circularly coupled oscillator system and its application to timing regulation of a multicylinder engine

In this paper, dynamics that produce an oscillation pattern with homogeneous phase lags are designed in a circularly coupled oscillator system. Two key topics here are: a definition of the local oscillator interactions that converges the relative phases of oscillators to their references, and an adaptive modification of the references to make themselves achievable. Next, this design method is applied to the timing regulation of multicylinder engine. Simulation results show that the engine cycle pattern with homogeneous phase shift is achieved even if the number of cylinders in the engine varies due to the trouble or system extensions. The simulations also demonstrate that this oscillation pattern certainly reduces the fluctuation of rotational velocity of the engine shaft.