Fuel metering for Diesel engines

Diesel engines use fuel of low volatility, which have to be injected into the combustion chamber.
Sufficiently large injection pressures are required to obtain a spray of suitable characteristics
(droplet size, spray angle, tip penetration) to be mixed with the air charge and burned in the time
available for the combustion process.

Mixture requirements
In Diesel engines a compression ignition of a heterogeneous charge occurs, because the fuel is
atomized in small liquid droplets in the air trapped inside the cylinder and most of the fuel is still in
liquid state when combustion begins. The physical states of reactants are different, therefore they
cannot be premixed before the combustion start. Most of the fuel burns mixed with the air in a
heterogeneous form (from the point of view of reactant physical state).
This aspect present some drawbacks (low combustion velocity, pollutant formation,…), but also
the advantage to control the load by varying the amount of injected fuel per cycle.
Diesel combustion is quite independent on the overall air/fuel ratio, since it mainly relays on local
conditions. So the engine can operate (at low loads) with a very lean mixture, because locally
(near the single droplets) a mixture of
correct (about stoichiometric) composition,
suitable for burning, is formed. At partial
loads, only the part of trapped air
surrounding the fuel-jet is involved in the
combustion process. Therefore in a Diesel
engine the load can be controlled by varying
the mass in injected fuel, changing the global
mixture quality.

The bmep and the engine power increase by raising

the injected fuel mass per cycle.
• Diesel engines cannot work for equivalence ratio
values greater than 0.8 because:
1) When power and bmep grow, also mechanical
and thermal loads increase.
2) Pollutant emissions also increase (mainly soot).
Injection Systems
The injection system of a Diesel engine carries out the following main tasks:
1) Control the engine load, metering the required mass of the fuel to be injected per cycle
2) Distribute the fuel equally to each cylinder (multi-cylinder engine) and per each cycle
3) Decide the optimum time of the injection in the power cycle, for each engine speed and load
4) Modulate in time the fuel flow rate, splitting the total fuel injected in different parts, to control
the combustion evolution
5) Obtain a spray of suitable characteristics to be mixed with the air charge and burned in the time
available for combustion.

In-line pump
A set of cam-driven plungers (one for each cylinder) operate in
closely fitting barrels. The pump gives: injection pressure, timing
and fuel flow rate. The injector, controlled by the fuel pressure,
gives the spray configuration required for the particular
combustion chamber. The injection timing is controlled by the
pump cam-shaft, synchronized with the engine crank-shaft. The
engine load is regulated by varying the effective pump stroke and
so the fuel mass injected per cycle.
It is an extremely rigid system since fuel pressure and timing are
directly controlled by the engine speed.

Distributor-type pump
A single plunger and barrel meter and distribute the fuel to all
the injectors. The plunger is forced to describe a combined axial
and rotary movement by a rotating cam plate. The axial motion
generates the high pressure, while the rotary one distributes the
fuel to the individual injectors. These units are more compact and
cheaper than in-line pumps and can operate at higher speeds.
For these reasons they were normally used on smaller vehicle
engines, before common-rail systems.

Pump-Nozzle unit
The pump and the injector are combined in a single component,
placed on the head of each cylinder. Here is removed the
injection line (where the fuel pressure is great) which connects
the fuel pump with the injector, so that very high injection
pressures can be reached. Such units are thus extensively used
on larger engines, usually fed by viscous fuels requiring high
injection pressures.
In the past, the actuation of these groups was mechanical (the
pump plunger was driven by a cam), just as their control
(obtained by changing the position of a helical groove in the
pump plunger). Later developments brought to an electronic
control of the fuel back-flow valve towards the return duct and to
a hydraulic actuation of the pump plunger.
Pressure accumulator (Common Rail System)
The fuel is stored at high-pressure and supplied by a common-
rail to all the electronic controlled injectors. The pressure in the
accumulator is kept constant at the desired value (independently
on the engine speed and load) by the injection pump through a
pressure control valve. The injection timing and the mass of
injected fuel are set by the ECU by means of voltage pulses, sent
to the injector actuators, on the basis of the information given
by sensors of several engine parameters.
So fuel injection and fuel high pressure generation are
decoupled.

The term common-rail refers to the fact that all the fuel injectors are supplied by a common fuel
rail, which is nothing more than a pressure accumulator, where the fuel is stored at high
pressures.

The most important signals, received by the ECU, are given by:
- The accelerator pedal setting, used by the driver to express his torque requirement to the
engine.
- The camshaft speed, to settle the firing sequence, i.e. the specific cylinder where the fuel
has to be injected.
- The crankshaft speed, to measure the rotational speed of the engine and the value of the
crank angle.
- The accumulator pressure, because it determines the fuel mass injected during the
opening time-interval of the injector.

The main advantages offered by a common-rail injection system are:

1) Pressure generation and fuel injection are completely decoupled from each other, so a properly
high injection pressure can be produced independently on the engine speed and load. In this way,
optimum spray characteristics are ensured at each speed and load.
2) The mass of the injected fuel can be very accurately controlled by the ECU, processing the input
signals received from a large number of sensors, capable to define the instantaneous running
conditions, and comparing these information with the optimum values stored in its memory.
3) The response time (fraction of milliseconds) of the control of the needle movement is short, in
comparison with the injection duration (few milliseconds). It is therefore possible to split the
injection process in different parts, in order to optimize the combustion development in terms of:
engine performance, noise reduction and quality of the exhausted gases.
Solenoid Injectors
The first generation of common-rail injectors uses injectors electronically
controlled, but hydraulically actuated by the high pressure fuel.

The nozzle needle is normally closed because the chamber underneath the
needle expansion is always linked to the high-pressure fuel.
The piston (F1) cross section is larger than the annular area of the chamber
(F2), so that the hydraulic force acting on the piston in greater the second and
(with the help of the spring) forces the needle into its seat, keeping closed the
access to the nozzle passage towards the combustion chamber.

When the injector’s solenoid valve is triggered, the high pressure fuel acting on
the piston is discharged through. Then the needle is quickly lifted up by the
hydraulic pressure F2 and the fuel is injected into the combustion chamber through the nozzle
holes.

The actuation of the nozzle needle by the hydraulic force is necessary, because the power required
to open the needle so quickly cannot be generated by the solenoid valve.

Piezoelectric injectors
One of the main improvements recently experienced by Common-Rail
injection systems is the replacement of a solenoid valve with a
piezoelectric control and actuation of the injectors (piezo-injectors).
They offer the following advantages:
1) Very short response times allow multiple injections, split in different
parts.
2) Very small and precisely controlled strokes consent to decrease the
minimum controlled volume of the injected fuel.
3) Large forces, generated by the piezoelectric effect, permits to hold the
hydraulic actuation of the nozzle needle, simplifying the injector design,
reducing its size and removing the fuel return line.

Injection law
An electronically controlled injection system allows to
precisely manage the injection timing, the mass of fuel
injected and the modulation in time of the injection law.
This means that the total fuel injected in each cycle can be
split in several parts, to obtain the most favourable
evolution in time of the injected mass flow rate, in order to
optimize the global combustion process.
The complex injection law, allowed by the actual injection
systems, was gradually achieved.
The first step was the introduction of a pilot injection of a
small amount (1-5 mm3) of fuel in advance of the main
injection. The injected fuel vaporizes and partially burns,
increasing air temperature and pressure inside the cylinder.
This leads to a reduction of the ignition delay of the main injection and a softer combustion, with
reduced pressure rise and lower pressure peak. These effects reduce the combustion noise and, in
many cases, the fuel consumption.

In this case, the pilot injection produced a reduction of

50% in the peak of energy release and a cut of 6 Dbe in the
global engine noise.
The use of piezo-injectors allows to split the injection in
several parts, because of the quick needle opening and
closing strokes and the short breaks required between two
following actions.

In the case b, the pilot injection is followed by a main one

split into three parts: a pre-injection, a central-injectionand
an afterone. The total number of injections can vary with
the engine operating conditions.
• The pre-injection complements the action of the pilot,
reducing the ignition delay of the fuel later injected, in
order to obtain a gradual combustion with controlled pressure rise and a resulting reduction in
combustion noise.
• The two or more sequential stages delay the main energy release, modulating it in time. This
leads to a lowering of the peak gas temperature, followed by a lower formation of nitric oxides,
which is strongly influenced by the maximum temperature of reacting gases. Moreover, delaying
in time the combustion process help to increase soot oxidation during the expansion stroke.
• Post-injections can be also used, to enhance soot oxidation and to increase the temperature of
the exhaust gases (DPF regeneration).

Fuel Spray
As conclusion of the metering and injection process a spray of small droplets is formed. Its
characteristics have to be suitable to mix the liquid fuel with the air charge and to burn it in the
time available for combustion.
The spray formation and evolution process have to be understood, together with its main physical
characteristics:
- Droplet size (atomization)
- Jet tip advancing (penetration)
- Spray dispersal angle (diffusion)

When the liquid is forced by a large pressure difference (30-200 MPa) to flow through the small
injector holes (0.1 -0.3 mm) with high speed (>100 m/s), the liquid jet breaks up in small droplets,
forming a cone-shaped spray, because of its high velocity, relative to the surrounding air, and of
the turbulence in the jet itself and
in the air. This process is called
primary break-up.
It is then followed by a secondary
break-up process, during which the
aerodynamic interactions between
the drops and the air produce a
continuous division in droplets of smaller and smaller size.
At the nozzle outlet, the turbulent movements in the liquid stream and the implosion of cavitation
bubbles generate in the liquid jet unstable surface waves. The surface wave amplification brings
the liquid column leaving the nozzle to break-up, at first in ligaments and particles and then in
drop clusters and droplets.