Fuel Injection Systems for CI Engines

P M V Subbarao
Professor
Mechanical Engineering Department

Methods to Facilitate High

Compression Ratio .

Coal dust injection system of Rudolph Diesel. AIR

INJ ECTION
(After U.S. patent No. 54286 of 1895.)

Compressed air tank A

Hopper : B
Combustion chamber : C
Rotary valve: D
Injection valve: E
Orifice: F

Type of Fuel Vs Combustion Strategy

Occurrence of Heat Addition in SI Engine : A Child Care
Event.
Highly volatile with High self Ignition Temperature: Spark
Ignition. Ignition after thorough mixing of air and fuel.
Occurrence of Heat Addition in CI Engine: A Teen Care
Event.
Less Volatile with low self Ignition Temperature:
Compression Ignition, Almost simultaneous mixing &
Ignition.

Colour Coded Evolution of Diesel Spray

Onset of The Inevitable Danger

The Complex Nature of Young Teen

Simultaneous Occurrence of Multiple Process in CI Engines

Start of
injection

End of
injecction

-10

Schematic of a diesel spray & Transport Process

Events in CI Combustion

Fuel Injection System for CI Engines

The fuel is to be introduced into the cylinder of a diesel engine
through a nozzle with a large pressure differential across the
nozzle orifice.
The cylinder pressure at injection is typically in the range of 50
to 100 atm.
Fuel injection pressures in the range of 200 to 1700 atm are used
depending on the engine size and type of combustion system
employed.
These large pressure differences across the injector nozzle are
required so that the injected liquid fuel jet will enter the chamber
at sufficiently high velocity to
Atomize into small-sized droplets to enable rapid evaporation.
Traverse the combustion chamber in the time available and fully
utilize the air charge.

Ecological Awareness : European Standards

Types of CI Engine Injection Systems

Fuel-Injection Systems
Unit Injector System (UIS) Single-Cylinder CI Engine.
Unit Pump System (UPS) Multi-cylinder CI Engine.
Common Rail Injection System (CRS) Multi-cylinder CI
Engine.

Development of Injection Pressure & Injection

System in CI Engines

Common Rail Diesel Injection System

The Common Rail Diesel Injection System delivers a more controlled

quantity of atomised fuel, which leads to better fuel economy; a
reduction in exhaust emissions; and a significant decrease in engine
noise during operation.

History of CRDI
The common rail system prototype was developed in the
1960's by Robert Huber of Switzerland.
The technology was further developed by Dr.Marco
Ganser at the swiss Federal Institute of Technology in
Zurich.
The first successful usage in production vehicle began in
Japan in the mid-1990's by Dr.Shohei Itoh & Masahina
Miyaki of the Denso Corporation.

Electronically Controlled CRDI

Common rail diesel injection system

In the Common Rail system, an accumulator, or rail, is used
to create a common reservoir of fuel under a consistent
controlled pressure that is separate from the fuel injection
points.
A high-pressure pump increases the fuel pressure in the
accumulator up to 1,600 bar .
The pressure is set by the engine control unit and is
independent of the engine speed and quantity of fuel being
injected into any of the cylinders.
The fuel is then transferred through rigid pipes to the fuel
injectors, which inject the correct amount of fuel into the
combustion chambers.

Injectors for CRDI

The injectors used in Common Rail systems are triggered
externally by an Electronic Diesel Control, (EDC) unit.
EDC controls all the engine injection parameters including the
pressure in the fuel rail and the timing and duration of injection.
Diesel fuel injectors used in Common Rail injection systems
operate differently to conventional fuel injectors used in the jerk
pump system.
Some common rail injectors are controlled by a magnetic
solenoid on the injector.
Hydraulic force from the pressure in the system is used to open
and close the injector, but the available pressure is controlled by
the solenoid triggered by the Electronic Diesel Control unit.

 Some injectors use Piezo crystal wafers to actuate the

injectors.
These crystals expand rapidly when connected to an
electric field.
In a Piezo inline injector, the actuator is built into the
injector body very close to the jet needle and uses no
mechanical parts to switch injector needles.
The electronic diesel control unit precisely meters the
amount of fuel injected, and improves atomization of the
fuel by controlling the injector pulsations.
This results in quieter, more fuel efficient engines; cleaner
operation; and more power output.

The Design Algorithm to Facilitate Fluid Dynamics

The basic concept of the design model is as follows.
The fuel injected into a combustion chamber is divided into
many zones.
Events in each zone, such as droplet break-up, evaporation,
airfuel mixing, ignition, heatrelease, heat transfer and
formation of exhaust emis are traced and calculated in order
to obtain zonal temperature and compositions.
The mass, internal energy and mole quantity of NOx of
every zone are calculated to obtain cylinder-averaged
temperature, airfuel ratio and NOx concentration.

Fluid Dynamics Factors

Geometric Features

Spray development
After fuel is injected into the cylinder, spray break-up
takes place in few crankshaft angles followed by wall
impingement.
In these stages, the movement of the fuel jet follows
different laws.
Before break-up, the jet follows the energy conservation
law and the intial velocity of jet is as follows:

Diesel fuel injection nozzles

Sac type

VCO-type

The holes in a modern injection system are very small, typically 50

250 m, and they are manufactured using a complicated EDM
(Electro Discharge Machining) process.

Actuation of Injector Nozzle

Mass flow rate through Nozzle

m f C D An 2 f p
m f C D An

d
2 f p
360 N

Fuel Exiting into High Pressure& Temperature Air

Enviroment : An unexplored Fluid Mechanics

Coefficient of Discharge

Nuricks Number, K

p1 pv
K
p1 p2

pv is the vapor pressure of the fuel.

Optimal Design of Nozzle Hole

Spray Formation
Spray formation is explained as Breakup Mechanism,
described as:
Stretching of fuel ligament into sheets or streams.
Appearance of ripples and protuberances.
Formation of small ligaments or holes in sheets.
Collapse of ligaments or holes in sheets.
Further breakup due to vibration of droplets.
Agglomeration or shedding from large drops.
The flow parameters of a jet:
Jet Reynolds number
Jet weber number
Ohnesorge number

Spray Structure

Distribution of Droplets in A Spray

Distribution of Droplets in A Spray

Distribution of Droplets in A Spray

Where
is the liquid surface tension,
L is the liquid viscosity,
A is the air density,
L is the liquid density,
pL, is the injection pressure differential across the nozzle,
is the half spray angle and
t is the film thickness, given by
where do is the discharge orifice
diameter and
FN is the nozzle flow number defined by

Post Break-up Kinematics

After break-up, the fuel jet behaves as a gas jet and follows
the moment conservation law.
jet centreline (um) is

According to the cylindrical free turbulent jet theory, the velocity

distribution at the jet cross-section is

where u is the velocity of fuel reaching the point (r, z).

ce is the entrainment factor.
The spray angle
The velocity of the fuel zone reaching the point (, s) is

Penetration of Fuel Spray

The spray penetration length and spray penetration rate from a
fuel injector are the parameters used to judge fuel spray
performance.
The merits of high or low penetration largely depend on engine
design and geometry.
Shorter spray penetration may be of an advantage where it
reduces fuel impingement, but in larger engines may inhibit
maximum air utilisation.

Influence of Injection Pressure on Spray Penetration

Length : HS Diesel

Influence of Ambient Pressure on Spray Penetration

Length : HS Diesel

Model to Design a Spray

SOI : 11o BTDC

Impingement of Spray
After the fuel jet has impinged the opposite chamber wall,
the movement of the wall jet is complicated.
Many experimental formulae have been suggested in the
design methodologies.
One such formulae used to calculate the velocity of the
zone that has impinged on the wall :

Spray Velocity Distribution in A Two Hole Nozzle

Effect of Swirl

Spray Velocity Distribution in A Two Hole Nozzle

Effect of Swirl

Air entrainment and mixing

The rate of air entrainment into each zone is calculated on
the basis of the momentum conservation principle.
The rate of entrainment relates not only to the fuel but also
to the airfuel ratio in the quiescent combustion chamber.
It is observed that the rate of air entrainment increases with
the increase of airfuel ratio in the cylinder.
The entrainment factor ce is linearly related to the
equivalence airfuel, .

Where a and b are constants for a certain engine type.

 u The relation takes some account of incomplete mixing for

low airfuel ratios.
The relationship given above also improves the predictive
ability of the model for transient operating conditions, for
which the airfuel ratio is low and the fresh air in the
cylinder may be consumed by entrainment of fuel zones.

Idealized spray vaporization

The spray is divided into an initial "cool and "hot" zone.
Within the cool zone, heat transfer is restricted to radiation
from the flame front to the droplet surface.
In the hot zone, heat transfer takes place both by radiation
from the flame front and by turbulent convection.
The reduction in droplet diameter due to vaporization
follows the "d2 law":

d d2

dt
where is the evaporation constant for forced convection.

The evaporation in forced convection

The evaporation constant in forced convection

0 1 0.276 Re

0.5

Sc

8k
0
ln 1 B
f cp
Where, k is the thermal conductivity of the gas,
Cp is the specific heat of the gas,
f is the density of the fuel and
B=the transfer number

1/ 3

1
B
h fg

QY0
c p T T f

hfg = latent heat of vaporization per unit mass of fuel,

T= temperature of gas surrounding the droplet,
Tf= temperature of drop surface,
Q = heat of reaction,
Y0=mass fraction of oxidant in the surrounding atmosphere
and
stoichiometric mixture ratio.

Ignition Delay
The sum of times required for sub process.
The most widely reported correlation relating the ignition
delay to the ambient gas condition is given by the relation

where is the ignition delay, Pg and Tg are the ambient gas mean
pressure and temperature before autoignition takes place,
A, B and n are experimental constants.

Arhenius-type equation for Ignition Delay

An Arhenius type equation for Ignition delay is:

pcyl

id 4.0 10
3

2.5

pref
p

1.04
g

6000
exp

6000
id 18 2 exp

p
T

cyl
p :Premixed air fuel ratio.

Symptoms to be Sensed to Predict Auto Ignition

Effect of Gas Temperature on Ignition Delay

Effect of Equivalence Ratio on Ignition Delay

The flammability limits versus the number of carbon

atoms in alkanes

Development of Injection Pressure & Injection

System in CI Engines

Fuel Injection System

The fuel is to be introduced into the cylinder of a diesel engine
through a nozzle with a large pressure differential across the
nozzle orifice.
The cylinder pressure at injection is typically in the range of 50
to 100 atm.
Fuel injection pressures in the range of 200 to 1700 atm are used
depending on the engine size and type of combustion system
employed.
These large pressure differences across the injector nozzle are
required so that the injected liquid fuel jet will enter the chamber
at sufficiently high velocity to
Atomize into small-sized droplets to enable rapid evaporation
Traverse the combustion chamber in the time available and fully
utilize the air charge.

European Standards

Types of CI Engine Injection Systems

Fuel-Injection Systems
Unit Injector System (UIS) Single-Cylinder CI Engine.
Unit Pump System (UPS) Multi-cylinder CI Engine.
Common Rail Injection System (CRS) Multi-cylinder CI
Engine.
The Unit Injector System (UIS) and the Unit Pump System (UPS)
are among the most significant innovations in this field.
They inject precisely the right amount of fuel individually into
each cylinder, at very high pressure, and at exactly the right
moment in time.
This results in considerably more efficient combustion than is the
case with conventional injection systems.
This, in turn, equates to higher output, less fuel consumption, and
lower levels of noise and exhaust-gas emissions.

Unit Injector System

Functional Principle of Modern Unit Injection

System

Actuation of Solenoid Valve

Actuation of Injector Nozzle

Unit Pump Diesel Injection System

Common Rail Diesel Injection System

The Common Rail Diesel Injection System delivers a more controlled

quantity of atomised fuel, which leads to better fuel economy; a
reduction in exhaust emissions; and a significant decrease in engine
noise during operation.

Common rail diesel injection system

In the Common Rail system, an accumulator, or rail, is used
to create a common reservoir of fuel under a consistent
controlled pressure that is separate from the fuel injection
points.
A high-pressure pump increases the fuel pressure in the
accumulator up to 1,600 bar .
The pressure is set by the engine control unit and is
independent of the engine speed and quantity of fuel being
injected into any of the cylinders.
The fuel is then transferred through rigid pipes to the fuel
injectors, which inject the correct amount of fuel into the
combustion chambers.

Injectors for CRDI

The injectors used in Common Rail systems are triggered
externally by an Electronic Diesel Control, or EDC unit.
EDC controls all the engine injection parameters including the
pressure in the fuel rail and the timing and duration of injection.
Diesel fuel injectors used in Common Rail injection systems
operate differently to conventional fuel injectors used in the jerk
pump system.
Some common rail injectors are controlled by a magnetic
solenoid on the injector.
Hydraulic force from the pressure in the system is used to open
and close the injector, but the available pressure is controlled by
the solenoid triggered by the Electronic Diesel Control unit.

 Some injectors use Piezo crystal wafers to actuate the

injectors.
These crystals expand rapidly when connected to an
electric field.
In a Piezo inline injector, the actuator is built into the
injector body very close to the jet needle and uses no
mechanical parts to switch injector needles.
The electronic diesel control unit precisely meters the
amount of fuel injected, and improves atomization of the
fuel by controlling the injector pulsations.
This results in quieter, more fuel efficient engines; cleaner
operation; and more power output.