POLITECNICO

DI MILANO

Fuel injection in Diesel engines

 POLITECNICO
Introduction DI MILANO

• Diesel engines use fuel of low volatility, which have to be injected into the
combustion chamber. Sufficiently high 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.
 POLITECNICO
Introduction DI MILANO

Structure of engine sprays

In modern Diesel engines, the combustion efficiency strongly
depends to the spray behavior.
 POLITECNICO
Mixture requirements DI MILANO

Emissions
Max cyl. pressure
• The bmep and the engine
Max cyl.
temperature
power increase by raising
the injected fuel mass per
cycle.

• Diesel engines cannot work

bmep [MPa]

Equivalence ratio
for equivalence ratio values
greater than 0.8 because:
Power 1) when power and bmep
grow, also mechanical
and thermal loads
increase;
2) pollutant emissions also
[rps] increase (mainly soot).

Engine speed [rpm]

 POLITECNICO
Mixture requirements DI MILANO

Conceptual representation of the Diesel combustion process

(“non-premixed combustion” or “mixing controlled combustion”
or “diffusive combustion”)
 POLITECNICO
Mixture requirements DI MILANO

• 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).
 POLITECNICO
Mixture requirements DI MILANO

• This aspect present some drawbacks (low combustion velocity, pollutant

formation,…)

• … but also the advantage to control the load by varying the amount of fuel
injected per cycle.

• Diesel combustion is quite independent on the overall air/fuel ratio, since it

mainly relays on local conditions.
 POLITECNICO
Mixture requirements DI MILANO

• So the engine can operate (at low loads) with a very lean mixture, because
locally (near the single droplets) a mixture of correct composition (around
stoichiometric), 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
of injected fuel, changing the global mixture quality.
 POLITECNICO
Injection systems DI MILANO

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

(in the case of a multi-cylinder engine) and
per each cycle;

3) decide the optimum time of the injection in

the power cycle, for each engine running
speed and load;
 POLITECNICO
Injection systems DI MILANO

The injection system of a Diesel engine carries out the following main tasks:

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.
 POLITECNICO
Injection systems – in-line pump DI MILANO
 POLITECNICO
Injection systems – in-line pump DI MILANO

1) In-line pump assembly

• 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
Load pressure, gives the spray configuration
Timing control
required for the particular combustion
Injection pump
chamber. The injection timing is
controlled by the pump cam-shaft,
F F SP F
synchronized with the engine crank-
T
shaft. The engine load is regulated by
varying the effective pump stroke and
so the fuel mass injected per cycle.
 POLITECNICO
Injection systems – in-line pump DI MILANO
 POLITECNICO
Injection systems – in-line pump DI MILANO
 POLITECNICO
Injection systems – distributor pump DI MILANO

2) 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
Distributor
motion generates the high pressure,
Timing Load while the rotary one distributes the
Injection pump control fuel to the individual injectors. These
units are more compact and cheaper
F F SP F
T 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.
 POLITECNICO
Injection systems – distributor pump DI MILANO
 POLITECNICO
Injection systems – pump-nozzle unit DI MILANO

Pump- 3) Pump-nozzle unit (1/2)

nozzle unit • The pump and the injector are
combined in a single component,
placed on the head of each cylinder. In
this case the injection line can be
Pressure removed (where the fuel pressure is
control
Accumulator valve
large) which connects the fuel pump
with the injector, so that very high
injection pressures can be reached.
Such units are thus extensively used on
SP larger engines, usually fed by viscous
T
fuels requiring high injection pressures.
 POLITECNICO
Injection systems – pump-nozzle unit DI MILANO

Pump- 3) Pump-nozzle unit (2/2)

nozzle unit • 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
Pressure position of a helical groove in the
control
Accumulator valve
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
SP pump plunger.
T
 POLITECNICO
Injection systems – pump-nozzle unit DI MILANO
 POLITECNICO
Injection systems – common rail DI MILANO

4) Pressure accumulator
• The fuel is stored at high-pressure and
supplied by a common-rail to all the
electronic controlled injectors. The
Pressure
pressure in the accumulator is kept
control
Accumulator valve constant at the desired value
Injection pump
(independently on the engine speed and
load) by the injection pump through a
pressure control valve. The injection timing
SP and the mass of injected fuel are set by the
T ECU by means of voltage pulses, sent to the
injector actuators, on the basis of the
information given by sensors of several
engine parameters.
 POLITECNICO
Common-rail systems DI MILANO
 POLITECNICO
Common-rail systems DI MILANO

• The term common-rail refers to the fact that, in these injection groups, all the
fuel injectors of a multi-cylinder engine are supplied by a common fuel rail
(5), which is nothing more than a pressure accumulator, where the fuel is
stored at high pressures.
 POLITECNICO
Common-rail systems DI MILANO

• A common-rail system includes a first low-pressure stage with a fuel filter group (2)
and a low-pressure pump (3), which supplies the high pressure pump (4). The high
pressure pump is designed for the large delivery quantities required by the engine at
full load. So an excess of compressed fuel is sent during the idle and partial load. This
excess fuel is returned to the tank trough the pressure control valve (7).
 POLITECNICO
Common-rail systems DI MILANO

• The pressure in the common-rail is measured by the sensor (6) and kept constant to
the desired value. In this way, the fuel mass injected is a function of the only opening
time interval. So, processing the information taken from several sensors, on the basis
of the stored maps, the injection timing and fuel mass are settled by the engine
control unit (8) by means of proper output signals sent to the injectors (11).
 POLITECNICO
Common-rail systems DI MILANO

Injector
ECU

• The most important signals, received by the ECU, are given by:
➢The accelerator pedal setting (1), used by the driver to express his torque
requirement to the engine.
➢The camshaft speed (2), to settle the firing sequence, i.e. the specific
cylinder where the fuel has to be injected.
 POLITECNICO
Common-rail systems DI MILANO

Injector
ECU

• The most important signals, received by the ECU, are given by:
➢The crankshaft speed (3), to measure the rotational speed of the engine and
the value of the crank angle.
➢The accumulator pressure (4), because it determines the fuel mass injected
during the opening time-interval of the injector.
 POLITECNICO
Common-rail systems DI MILANO

Injector
ECU

• Processing the input signals from the above sensors and from additional
sensors (5), the ECU generates electrical output signals to control the high
pressure pump and the injectors.
• The first generation of common-rail injectors uses injectors electronically
controlled, but hydraulically actuated by the high pressure fuel.
 POLITECNICO
Common-rail systems DI MILANO

Injector
ECU

• The nozzle needle (15) is normally closed because the chamber (14)
underneath the needle expansion is always linked to the high-pressure fuel.
On the other side, as long as the solenoid valve is at rest, the piston on the
needle top (12) is connected to the accumulator through the one-way valve
(10).
 POLITECNICO
Common-rail systems DI MILANO

Injector
ECU

• The piston (12) cross section is larger than the annular area of the chamber
(14), so that the hydraulic force acting on the piston exceeds the second and
(with the help of the spring (13)) forces the needle into its seat, sealing off
the access to the nozzle passage towards the combustion chamber.
 POLITECNICO
Common-rail systems DI MILANO

Injector
ECU

• When the injector’s solenoid valve (9) is triggered, the high pressure fuel
acting on the piston is discharged through the restriction (11). Then the
needle is quickly lifted up by the hydraulic pressure acting on the chamber
(14) and the fuel is injected into the combustion chamber through the nozzle
holes.
 POLITECNICO
Common-rail systems DI MILANO

Injector
ECU

• 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.
 POLITECNICO
Common-rail injectors DI MILANO
 POLITECNICO
Common-rail injectors DI MILANO

Needle valve
Feed hole

Nozzle body

Fuel gallery Pressure shoulder

Sac
Spray hole
 POLITECNICO
Common-rail systems DI MILANO
 POLITECNICO
Common-rail systems DI MILANO

• 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 proper high injection pressure can be produced
independently from the engine speed and load. In this way, optimum
spray characteristics are ensured at each speed and load.
2) 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.
 POLITECNICO
Common-rail systems DI MILANO

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

3) Response time (fraction of milliseconds) for 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.
 POLITECNICO
Piezo-injectors DI MILANO

• 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.
 POLITECNICO
Piezo-injectors DI MILANO
 POLITECNICO
Piezo-injectors DI MILANO
 POLITECNICO
Piezo-injectors DI MILANO
 POLITECNICO
Piezo-injectors DI MILANO

Electro-magnetic
injector
Piezo-electric
injector
 POLITECNICO
Injection law DI MILANO

• 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 favorable evolution in time of the injected mass flow rate, in
order to optimize the global combustion process.
 POLITECNICO
Injection law DI MILANO

• 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 smoother
combustion, with reduced pressure rise and lower pressure peak. These effects
reduce the combustion noise and, in many cases, the fuel consumption.
 POLITECNICO
Injection law DI MILANO

Pilot
Voltage [V]

injection Main Effects of pilot injection on a

injection
passenger-car Diesel engine
running at low rotational
Without pilot injection
speed (1500 rpm) and 20%
With pilot injection load.
Cylinder pressure [MPa]

Heat release rate [J/°]

Pressure In this case, the pilot injection
of 1 mm3 fuel produced a
reduction of 50% in the peak
of energy release and a cut of
6 dBA in the global engine
Heat release rate
noise.

TDC
Crank angle [°]
 POLITECNICO
Injection law DI MILANO

Pilot Main
• The use of piezo-injectors INJECTION

allows to split the injection in

several parts, because of the
HEAT RELEASE
quick needle opening and RATE

closing strokes and the short

TDC
breaks required between two
following actions.
Pilot Main Post
Pre Central After
INJECTION

HEAT RELEASE
RATE

TDC
 POLITECNICO
Injection law DI MILANO

• In case b, the pilot injection Pilot Main

is followed by a main one INJECTION
split into three parts: a pre-
injection, a central-injection
and an after one. The total HEAT RELEASE
number of injections can vary RATE
with the engine operating
TDC
conditions.

• The pre-injection
Pilot Main Post
complements the action of Pre Central After
the pilot, reducing the INJECTION
ignition delay of the fuel later
injected, in order to obtain a
gradual combustion with HEAT RELEASE
controlled pressure rise and RATE
a resulting reduction in
combustion noise. TDC
 POLITECNICO
Injection law DI MILANO

• The two or more sequential Pilot Main

stages delay the main energy INJECTION
release, modulating it in time.
This leads to a lowering of the
peak gas temperature, followed HEAT RELEASE
by a lower formation of nitric RATE
oxides, which is strongly
influenced by the maximum TDC
temperature of reacting gases.
Moreover, delaying in time the
combustion process help to Pilot Main Post
Pre Central After
increase soot oxidation during
INJECTION
the expansion stroke.
• Post-injections can be also
used, to enhance soot HEAT RELEASE
oxidation and to increase the RATE
temperature of the exhaust
gases (DPF regeneration). TDC
 POLITECNICO
Fuel spray characteristics DI MILANO

• 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)
 POLITECNICO
Spray formation DI MILANO

• When the liquid fuel 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 and 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.

Primary breakup of the liquid jet (without cavitation)

 POLITECNICO
Spray formation DI MILANO

• Liquid fuel atomization is also influenced by possible cavitation (formation of

vapor bubbles) inside the nozzle. This takes place when the pressure inside the
nozzle becomes lower than the fuel vapor pressure.

• At the nozzle outlet, the high turbulence 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.

Primary breakup of the liquid jet (including cavitation)

 POLITECNICO
Spray formation DI MILANO

Primary Secondary
breakup breakup
 POLITECNICO
Spray formation DI MILANO
 POLITECNICO
Spray formation DI MILANO
 POLITECNICO
Spray formation DI MILANO

• The motion of the liquid fuel inside the nozzle depends on:
➢ difference between cylinder pressure (pcyl) and pressure inside the
nozzle (pin);
➢ physical properties of the liquid (density, viscosity, surface tension,..);
➢ nozzle geometry details (nozzle diameter dn, nozzle length Ln,…)

• Primary break-up is mainly governed by the Reynolds nozzle number Ren,

which is the ratio between the inertia forces and the viscous forces in the
liquid column:
ul  l d n
Re n =
l

ul2 pn − pcyl
=
2 l
 POLITECNICO
Spray formation: secondary break-up DI MILANO

• Far away from the nozzle, the air mass entrained within the spray increases
and generates turbulent vortexes in which the drops undergo a further
secondary break-up.
• Indeed, moving inside the turbulent air, the drops continually change their
shape because of their original oscillatory movement and of their aerodynamic
interaction with the air vortexes.
 POLITECNICO
Spray formation: secondary break-up DI MILANO

• This further division in smaller and smaller droplets is favoured by high values of
the inertia forces (lur2) due to the relative velocity between the air and the single
droplet (diameter dd), and contrasted by the surface tension forces (sl/ dd).
• So the process is controlled by the Weber number, which compares the relative
importance of the previous forces:
l ur2 d n
We =
sl
 POLITECNICO
Spray formation: secondary break-up DI MILANO

Secondary break-up
 POLITECNICO
Spray formation: secondary break-up DI MILANO

Secondary break-up
 POLITECNICO
Spray formation - collision DI MILANO

Collision
 POLITECNICO
Spray formation - evaporation DI MILANO

• Finally, the continuous energy transfer between the spray and the hot air inside
the cylinder brings to the progressive liquid evaporation and to the vapor
diffusion in air, to form a burnable mixture influencing the following combustion
process.
 POLITECNICO
Mean droplet diameter DI MILANO

• Since the liquid velocity

Sauter mean diameter [m]

Distribution [%]
changes locally in the
various points of the jet
cross section and in time,
during the injection
process, also the droplet Diameter [m]

sizes are different in time Mean diameter

and space.

Time after injection start [ms]

• Usually, the droplet mean diameter of a Diesel spray is higher at the injection start
and (at less extent) at its end, in comparison with its value in the central part.
 POLITECNICO
Mean droplet diameter DI MILANO

• To describe atomization condition of a spray, it is necessary to use statistical

quantities and a proper distribution f(x) around its mean value .
xM

• Sauter mean diameter (SMD): SMD =

 xm
x 3 f ( x)dx
xM
 xm
x 2 f ( x)dx

• Study of the spray evolution:

➢ Multi-dimensional models (CFD): Eulerian-Lagrangian approach, solution of

the mass, momentum and energy equations for pockets of droplets (parcels).
Sub-models required to estimate atomization, break-up, evaporation,…

➢ Measurements: Mie-Scattering technique to measure spray penetration,

Laser-Induced Fluorescence (LIF) to estimate the size of and distribution of
the droplets in the spray.
 POLITECNICO
Mean droplet diameter DI MILANO

• SMD estimated from empirical correlations (Hiroyasu):

d s = Cng  ( pinj − pcyl )

−0.135
 a Vin
0.121 0.131

1) Injection pressure; when it increases, the droplet mean diameter is reduced.

2) Injector nozzle diameter, whose decrease promotes the primary break-up of the
liquid jet at the nozzle outlet.
3) Nozzle geometry details, with an optimum value of the ratio between the nozzle
length Ln and its diameter (to obtain a good jet atomization).
4) Air density in the combustion chamber, whose growth increases the interaction
forces between droplets and gaseous phase, producing further divisions during
secondary break-up.
5) Fuel physical characteristics (viscosity and surface tension), whose lower values
help in increasing the Reynolds and Weber numbers.
 POLITECNICO
Spray formation: CFD vs. experiments DI MILANO

• Computed vs experimental spray

distribution for a 7-hole diesel
spray, emerging from a
common-rail injector at non-
evaporating conditions. All the
tested conditions include
multiple injections (pilot+main)
 POLITECNICO
Spray penetration DI MILANO

• The spray penetration strongly influences the fuel-air mixing process and the air
utilization during combustion. For this reason, it affects engine performance,
specific fuel consumption, pollutant emissions.

Spray core

Outer region
Droplet velocity profile

Fuel concentration
 POLITECNICO
Spray penetration DI MILANO

• Spray can be described in

terms of:

➢ Liquid length Lsp

➢ Spray tip velocity usp
➢ Spray cone-angle bsp
 POLITECNICO
Spray penetration DI MILANO

Evaporating spray, CFD simulation

Liquid and vapour penetration
 POLITECNICO
Jet spreading angle DI MILANO

• The fuel injected in a combustion chamber has not only to be finely atomized and
to correctly penetrate the air, but also to spread forming a cone-shaped spray,
with a good cone opening angle bsp.

• This opening angle, also called jet spreading angle, is usually taken as a measure
of the spray diffusion in the combustion chamber, necessary to obtain a good air
utilization, especially when the air turbulence is low.

• The jet spreading angle bsp is strongly influenced by the nozzle geometry details.
 POLITECNICO
Jet spreading angle DI MILANO

(1)
1) Multi-hole nozzle: with 4-8 open
orifices necessary to distribute the
fuel in all the chamber volume, since
the spreading angle of a single open-
orifice is poor (bsp = 20°)
 POLITECNICO
Jet spreading angle DI MILANO

(2) 2) Pintle-nozzle (outwardly opening

nozzle), where the needle projects
through the nozzle hole. When the
needle moves up, the fuel is injected
through a ring opening, forming a
hollow-cone spray.
 POLITECNICO
Jet spreading angle DI MILANO

(3) 3) Pressure-swirl nozzle, where the fuel

enters the combustion chamber swirling,
since it is driven to the vortex chamber
underneath the needle, by tangential
swirling ducts.
 POLITECNICO
Jet spreading angle DI MILANO

Initial jet spreading angle b [°]

Ratio air/fuel density  a/fuel [x103]

 POLITECNICO
Spray penetration DI MILANO

• All the considerations were referred to fuel injection into quiescent air. The
influence of air motion on the spray evolution in time is usually high, because it
diverts the spray in the direction of the air flow, with a stronger effect on smaller
droplets.
(a) Motion on an axial plane (squish)

(a) Motion on a tangential plane (swirl)

Low intensity Correct intensity High intensity

POLITECNICO
DI MILANO
POLITECNICO
DI MILANO
POLITECNICO
DI MILANO
POLITECNICO
DI MILANO
POLITECNICO
DI MILANO