The present invention provides an intake air control capable of
implementing a highly accurate constant negative pressure control with a
smaller number of process steps under various environments. The intake
air control is applicable to an engine having a variable valve actuation
mechanism for adjusting at least a lift amount of an intake valve to
control an intake air amount and a throttle valve for keeping a gauge
pressure in an intake manifold at a desired gauge pressure. A reference
throttle opening area is determined by referring to a first table based
on a desired intake air amount. The first table defines a relation
between an intake air amount and a throttle opening area under a
reference gauge pressure, a reference atmospheric pressure and a
reference intake air temperature. A throttle opening area for achieving
the desired gauge pressure is determined by correcting the reference
throttle opening area with a correction parameter derived based on the
Bernoulli's law by using the desired gauge pressure, a current
atmospheric pressure and a current intake air temperature.