VALVE OPERATING

MECHANSMS
For a reciprocating engine to operate properly, each
valve must open at the proper time, stay open for the
required length of time, and close at the proper time.
Intake valves are opened just before the piston reaches
top dead center, and exhaust valves remain open after
top dead center. At a particular instant, therefore, both
valves are open at the same time (end of the exhaust
stroke and beginning of the intake stroke). This valve
overlap permits better volumetric efficiency and
lowers the cylinder operating temperature. This timing
of the valves is controlled by the valve-operating
mechanism and is referred to as the valve timing.

The valve lift (distance that the valve is lifted off its
seat) and the valve duration (length of time the valve is
held open) are both determined by the shape of the
cam lobes. Typical cam lobes are illustrated in Figure 1.
The portion of the lobe that gently starts the valve
operating mechanism moving is called a ramp, or step.
The ramp is machined on each side of the cam lobe to
permit the rocker arm to be eased into contact with
the valve tip and thus reduce the shock load which
would otherwise occur. The valve operating
mechanism consists of a cam ring or camshaft
equipped with lobes that work against a cam roller or a
cam follower.

VALVE TRAIN COMPONENTS

The valve train can have many components. The
following are the most common components in the
valve train. Depending on the type of engine, there
may be varying quantities of the parts listed below, or
the engine may not contain all of the parts listed.

CAMSHAFT

The camshaft is a long shaft that goes through the

head or the block of the engine, depending on what
type of engine it is. There are lobes along the length of
the shaft positioned differently. The profile of the lobes
have an egg-shape to them. The dimensions of these
lobes are what determines the amount of lift. The
more lift, the longer the valves stay open, which allows
more air into the cylinder.
CAMSHAFT FOLLOWERS

A cam follower is a type of bearing that

follows(appropriately named, right?) along the lobes of
a camshaft as it rotates, providing a low-resistance
surface for the lobe to push up against. A follower is
also called a lifter, and sometimes a tappet. There are
several types of cam followers, whose configurations
generally depend on how they mount to their mating
part. They will be used when the cam is in the block,
rather than being overhead.

PUSH RODS
Push rods are one of those parts that are not always
used in a diesel engine. They will also only be used
when the cam is in the block and not overhead. A push
rod is a rod that pushes up on the rocker arm. It will
move depending on the movement of the camshaft
follower. Another job of the pushrod is to conduct oil
up to the cylinder head.

ROCKER ARMS

A rocker arm is a pivoting lever that pushes on the

valve stem. Rocker arms will sometimes be called
rocker levers, or just rockers. Depending on the type of
valve train, the rotating camshaft lobes will either push
directly on the rocker am, or on the push rods, which
will conduct that motion up to the rocker arm. In an
overhead cam engine, the cam follower is built into the
rocker arm in the form of a roller.
ROCKER SHAFTS

Rocker shafts are simply the shafts that the rockers are
on. It’s this shaft that is the pivot point for the rocker
arms. The shaft also conducts oil to the various rocker
arms.

VALVE BRIDGES
Valve bridges are also sometimes called valve yokes.
Bridges allow a single rocker to actuate multiple valves.
It has a stem or bridge that sits on both valve stems, so
that when the rocker is pressed down, the valve stems
get pressed down as well.
VALVES

A valve is composed of two major sections, the valve

head and valve stem. The head of the valve is what
allows air into and out of the cylinder. The stem is what
gets gets pressed on by the rest of the valve train. At
the end of the stem are grooves that keepers will fit
into to hold the valve in place. Some engines have only
two valves per cylinder, and some have four. The more
common number in the heavy duty diesel market is
four. These are split evenly between intake and
exhaust valves.
VALVE SPRINGS

The camshaft creates an upward force that acts on the

rocker arm, which in turn pushes the valve down. But
as the cam rotates around, it does not pull the pushrod
or rocker arm back with it. That’s why there is a valve
spring to create force in the opposite direction and
close the valve. The spring will hold the valve closed
until the lobe of the camshaft comes around with a
greater force and pushes it down.
 FREE VALVE TECHNOLOGY
The Freevalve concept, also known as fully variable
valve actuation, offers the unique ability to have
independent control of the intake and exhaust valves
in an ICE. For any engine load criteria, the timing of
intake and exhaust can be independently programmed.
The system can then “decide” based on driving
conditions which one to use to maximize performance
or minimize fuel consumption and emissions. This
allows more precise control over the engine which in
turn provides significant performance
benefits.Freevalve uses electro-hydraulicpneumatic
actuators combined with patented advanced sensor
techniques. As a result, Freevalve has overcome all the
typical challenges faced by other cam-less
technologies.As an example of the impact of the
Freevalve technology, the Qoros “Qamfree” engine
was fitted to a Qoros 3 hatchback shown at the
Guangzhou Motor Show in November 2016. The
engine shown at Guangzhou was a 1.6 litre
turbocharged Qoros engine modified using Freevalve
technology to produce 230 horsepower and 320Nm of
torque. This represents a 47% increase in power, a 45%
increase in torque and a 15% reduction in fuel
consumption when compared to a traditional camshaft
engine with similar specifications.
Freevalve’s technology allows full control of the
combustion cycle. No other variable valve actuation
system offers this level of control and reliability. Both
intake and exhaust valves can be opened and
closed at any desired crankshaft angle. This flexibility
enables an engine to deliver lower fuel
consumption and emission numbers, while still
delivering increased torque and horsepower.
Freevalve allows for optimal valve times for volumetric
efficiency at all RPMs, plus
• Use of intake runner inertia at all RPMs
• With Divided Exhaust Ports - 100 % scavenging of
residuals is possible at all speeds and loads
• Increasing volumetric efficiency
• Reducing, or eliminating, knock even with high
compression ratios
• At low RPMs, dual intake valve openings provide
maximum intake runner inertia with low
temperature increase effectively increasing volumetric
efficiency up to 30 %
• Allows for cold start down to minus 30-degree C on
pure alcohol fuels like Methanol and Ethanol,
without the need for petrol support or other add on
solutions
• Allows for heavy duty diesel engines in trucks and
buses to run without exhaust brake as the valve
timing can be tuned to do this task as well
• Allow for Turbo application without wastegate as
turbo control can be done with separate exhaust
valve ports
• Allow for 2-stroke operation at lower rpms in
boosted applications
• Allow for multi flex fuel operation to a degree not
seen before
FUEL CONSUMPTION REDUCTION
Freevalve has developed technology to reduce fuel
consumption in several ways:
1. Improve engine efficiency at part load, using the
Free Valve Technology system to eliminate the
throttle and introduce cylinder deactivation with a
method called Frequency Modulated Torque. With
the DEP or HEGR engine concepts engine compression
can be increased without knock problems.
Increased EGR rates in both concepts will reduce heat
losses while improving the combustion process.
2. The Pneumatic Hybrid provides an inexpensive and
reliable solution to eliminate Standby/Idle losses
(17.2%) and regenerate braking energy (almost half of
the energy used in city driving) with good
efficiency. This solution basically provides the same
benefits as an electric hybrid, such as the Toyota
Prius and Honda Insight, but without the extra cost,
weight, and complexity of battery packs and
electric motors.
3. The Steam Hybrid provides a means to eliminate the
normal cooling system, recycle exhaust waste
heat, and introduce a work-generating internal cooling
cycle, further reducing engine losses. This can
be realized using existing engine hardware for compact
and cost-effective implementation.
COMPACTNESS
Implementation of the Freevalve system leads to a
much more compact total engine package because
many of the parts used in a traditional camshaft-based
engine are no longer necessary. With Freevalve,
OEM´s can do away with expensive parts such as the
throttle body, camshaft, cam drive, timing gear
and cover, wastegate, pre-catalytic converter systems
and direct injection systems.
On a typical vertically positioned engine, Freevalve will
reduce build height and improve pedestrian
impact safety. On boxer engines, the width of the
engine will be reduced dramatically. Our work with
Qoros on their 1.6 litre turbocharged engine resulted in
a reduction of 50mm in height and 70mm in
depth.
Reduced weight and less valvetrain losses are also
important benefits of the Freevalve system. Our
Qoros engine is 20kg lighter after the change to
Freevalve technology

Pneumatic-hydraulic valve actuation

Pneumatic valve actuation uses compressed air to
provide the valve opening driving force. Valve closing
force can either come from pneumatics, valve springs
or both. In this case it is provided merely by the valve
spring itself. Pressurized oil acts as hydraulics in the
actuator, both holding the valve in desired lift height
as well as controlling the seating velocity.
Each actuator‡ (see figure 2.1 – left picture) controls
one engine valve each and consists of an actuator
piston (AP) (figure 2.1 – middle & right picture),
cylinder, two solenoids§, two spool valves, two port
valves and a hydraulic latch. Solenoid 1, called the
timing solenoid (TS), controls a spool valve and the
hydraulic latch. Solenoid 2, called the lift solenoid (LS),
controls another spool valve. In turn, the spool valves
controls the air entering the actuator cylinder.
The compressed air powers the piston which presses
on the engine poppet valve, causing it to open (see
figure 2.2). To better describe the dynamics of the
system, the complete valve opening and closing
process can be divided into three parts; air charging,
expansion and dwell and air discharging.

Air charging state

When the TS is energized, it opens spool valve 1 which
then sends compressed air into the actuator cylinder.
As the pressure rises, it pushes the AP outwards and it
again pushes on the engine poppet valve, see figure
2.2. After a typical time delay of 4 ms after the TS
voltage has gone high, the actuator starts opening the
engine valve, according to Cargine’s specifications.
(This was later seen to correspond well with
experiments.) The oil check valve S1 is activated
simultaneously as the TS, and becomes a one way
valve, stopping the oil flowing back to the reservoir. As
the oil has the same pressure as the air, oil is pushed
through, and occupies the piston valve stem volume.
See figure 2.3, red is pressurized air and blue is
connected to ambient air.
Expansion and dwell stage
When the LS is energized, it opens spool valve 2 which
stops the inlet air, see figure 2.5. However, since the
TS is not yet de-energized, the hydraulic latch S1 still
allows flow into the actuator and the air can expand
further It completely expands until it equals the spring
force and other resistance factors. The hydraulic latch
secures the valve in the maximum lift height,
preventing oil flowing back to the reservoir and holding
the piston in place. A small oscillating movement can
be seen as the valve compresses the oil. This is
discussed further in chapter 5. Using this strategy, to
allow the compressed air to expand fully inside the
actuator cylinder, it extracts full expansion work from
the air and hence lowers the energy consumption.
The timing between energizing the two solenoids,
called the lift control time (see figure 2.4), is what
decides the lift height and it is crucial to algorithm this
carefully to be able to choose height with a reasonable
degree of precision.
Air discharging stage
When TS becomes de-energized, spool valve 1 returns
to zero and the hydraulic latch S1 is opened again.
The air trapped in the actuator cylinder begins to
discharge and the oil can flow freely back into the
reservoir, see figure 2.6. Once the AP moves close to
the valve seat, the piston stem enters a dead-end in
the stem cylinder. This means the oil cannot flow back
in the return line to the reservoir and is trapped.
Instead, there is a small slit on top of the valve stem,
see figure 2.1, right picture. The slit is cut at an angle to
the axis and the further the piston moves into the
dead-end, the smaller the opening which the oil can
escape gets and brakes the valves efficiently. Changing
the distance, i.e. the dead volume distance, in the
actuator, the point which the piston enters the braking
zone can be determined and subsequently lowering
the seating velocity.
Advantages with Variable Valve Actuation
VVT offers a wide range of advantages and benefits.
Increased torque, higher efficiency, lower energy
consumption and advanced combustion concepts are
some of the things that are rendered possible by VVT.
Some of these benefits and advanced concepts have
been investigated by M.
M. Schechter et al. [5]. An overview of the most
significant advantages follows below, with the
advantages specifically for a fully VVA system, such as
the EPVA.
Throttling
In a SI engine the load is regulated by controlling the
air entering the cylinder. This air intake throttling
causes a near vacuum in the intake manifold which
results in pumping loss. By eliminating the throttle and
instead regulate the air entering the cylinder by careful
timing of the IV the pumping work can be greatly
reduced in an SI engine at part load. Both late opening
and early closing can be utilized. This largely reduces
throttling loss and improves fuel efficiency
Increased torque
The volumetric efficiency** is a measure of the
effectiveness of a four-stroke engine cycle [7]. This is
determined by the resistance in the induction system
as well as the timing of the inlet valves. By timing the
valve opening and closing in connection with the
pressure waves in both intake and exhaust manifolds
the volumetric efficiency can be bettered. In non-
variable camshaft-driven engines the valve timing is
compromised between high and low engine speed.
By optimizing valve timing for the entire engine speed
range, the volumetric efficiency can be improved,
leading to a significant torque increase.
Faster burn rate
The faster the burn rate, the more stable and
repeatable the combustion is, which offers good
emission control as well as provides efficiency gains
[7]. Turbulent flame propagation speed depends on
turbulence and the burn rate will increase with higher
turbulence. One way to increase turbulence is to
delay inlet valve opening (IVO) until well after top dead
center (TDC). When the volume is greater and the
piston has a much higher downspeed, it will increase
the air intake speed and consequently turbulence. At
low engine speeds, reducing the valve lift will have
the same effect as the air enters at greater speed
through a smaller orifice.
Optimized compression ratio
The compression ratio is directly related to efficiency,
but a too high ratio heightens the risk of knock. A
variable compression ratio that can be tailored to load,
speed etc. is therefore desirable [5]. The effective
compression ratio can be changed without changing
the expansion ratio, by varying the inlet valve closing
(IVC) timing with either late (after bottom dead center)
or early closing.
Optimized expansion ratio
In a normal ICE the EV opens well before BDC to
evacuate excess exhaust gas pressure before the
piston turns, blowdown. This timing is optimized for
maximum power, and this means a relatively high
engine speed. The higher engine speed, the earlier the
EV has to open to ensure a complete blowdown. At low
engine speeds, the EV opening (EVO) is too early to
make full use of pressure work on the piston. By
retarding EVO at lower engine speed, this consequence
of fixed valve timing can be countered.
Exhaust gas recirculation
In direct-injection stratified charge (DISC) SI and CI
engines a big part of the emission control challenge is
to deal with nitrous oxides (NOx). NOx formation is
dependent on combustion temperature and the
existence of oxygen. A higher content of exhaust gases
lowers the combustion temperature and as a result
lowers nitrogen oxides generation [5]. If the EVC is
retarded to after TDC the piston will suck back exhaust
gases into the cylinder, the later the valve closes the
more exhaust gas is sucked in.

Improved idle
Idling stability is negatively affected by residual gas in
the combustion chamber. By careful tuning of the
valve timing the amount of residual exhaust gases
during idling can be reduced and thus improve idling
stability [9]. Furthermore, the idling speed can be
reduced and lower the fuel consumption.