Adaptive power-split control design for marine hybrid diesel powertrain

It is known that mechanical wear and tear of components of large marine engines throughout their lifetime can cause the engine dynamics to alter. Since traditional control systems with fixed parameters cannot deal with this issue, the engine performance may degrade. In this work, we introduce adaptive control algorithms capable of adapting the control system in order to preserve the engine performance once its dynamics deviate from the nominal ones. Particularly, direct and indirect model reference adaptation mechanisms are studied. The controllers are designed and simulated in Matlab/Simulink and their performance under nominal and “worn-out” engine conditions is evaluated. The “worn-out” engine conditions are imitated by altering time delay of the lambda sensor. In such conditions, adaptive controllers demonstrate a notable improvement in tracking performance compared to the fixed parameters PI controller. Finally, the designed controllers are validated on the hybrid marine engine testbed.