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Advanced combustion strategies including premixed charge compression ignition, homogeneous charge compression ignition, and lifted flame combustion are promising approaches for meeting increasingly stringent emissions regulations and improving fuel efficiency in next generation powertrains. Variable valve actuation and closed-loop control promise to play a key role in the promotion and control of these advanced combustion modes. For example, modulation of intake valve closure timing dictates the effective compression ratio and influences the total amount of charge trapped inside the cylinder, and in so doing allows manipulation of the in-cylinder reactant concentrations and temperature prior to and during the combustion process. The effort described here uses data from, and an experimentally-validated simulation model for, a multi-cylinder engine with variable geometry turbocharging, cooled exhaust gas recirculation, and fully flexible variable valve actuation. This effort’s intent is to determine the control authority over the gas exchange process and effective compression ratio when intake valve closure timing modulation is included on a modern turbocharged diesel engine, as well as to lay the groundwork for closed-loop control design for the promotion and control of advanced combustion modes. The engine testbed at Purdue provides a unique opportunity to pursue these objectives for turbocharged engines with exhaust gas recirculation, as it is the only such engine system in academia outfitted with multi-cylinder fully-flexible valve actuation. A method to estimate in-cylinder temperature at top dead centre is also described. Candidate control architectures for both steady state and transient operation are introduced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]