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Development of an Electronic Fuel Injection System for a 4-Stroke Locomotive

Diesel Engine

Conference Paper · May 2012

DOI: 10.1115/ICES2012-81163

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 Proceedings of the ASME 2012 Internal Combustion Engine Division Spring Technical Conference
ICES 2012
May 6-9, 2012, Torino, Piemonte, Italy

ICES2012-81163
DEVELOPMENT OF AN ELECTRONIC FUEL INJECTION SYSTEM FOR A 4-
STROKE LOCOMOTIVE DIESEL ENGINE

Anirudh Gautam, Prem Chandra, Kamlesh Kumar, Mani Ram Sharma, Sanjeet Kumar
Engine Development Directorate,
Research Designs & Standards Organisation,
Ministry of Railways, Government of India, Lucknow, India

Avinash Kumar Agarwal#

Engine Research Laboratory,
Department of Mechanical Engineering,
Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, Kanpur-208016, India
#
Corresponding Author’s Email: akag@iitk.ac.in

ABSTRACT of active service), the ALCO engine which powers these

locomotives are upgraded to a higher power rating of 3100 hp.
An electronic fuel injection system for a 4-stroke, 16 cylinders, These ALCO design engines are conventionally retrofitted with
V-configuration, medium speed, large bore locomotive diesel higher capacity mechanical fuel injection systems during these
engine has been developed and successfully retrofitted on a upgrades. Detailed technical specifications of the engine after
rebuilt diesel locomotive. The engine employs a Pump-Line- up gradation to 3100 hp are shown in Table 1.
Nozzle (PLN) system of fuel injection into the cylinder.
Original fuel injection system used is a mechanical fuel Table 1: Technical specifications of upgraded locomotive
injection pump connected to a mechanical fuel injector through engine
a high pressure fuel line. The fuel injection pump meters the Configuration V-16, DI, 4S, Turbocharged,
fuel delivery using a single helix machined on its plunger. The inter-cooled diesel engine
fuel injection timings are however optimized only for the rated Bore/ Stroke (mm) 228.6/ 266.7
speed and load resulting in non-optimised operation at other Displacement 10.95 liter/ cylinder
engine operating points. An electronic fuel injection pump Compression Ratio 11.75 (static)
having a solenoid valve for both fuel metering and injection Fuel Injection Equipment Mechanical pump-line-nozzle
timing along with ECU has been developed for retrofitment on (PLN) system
rebuilt diesel locomotives. Interfacing of the ECU to the engine Nozzle Opening Pressure 250 bars
test cell controller has been done by developing suitable Rated Power 2312 kW @ 1050 rpm
hardware and software. ECU calibration has been done and Torque at max. speed 22000 Nm @ 1050 rpm
various maps of the engine have been developed. The engine
was tested on the engine test bed. High pressure injector, The original fuel injection pump used on ALCO engines had
modified fuel headers, fuel connection systems, a new high plunger diameter of 15 mm. The plunger diameter of the fuel
capacity fuel pump and layout of the wire harness were injection pump was increased from 15 mm to 17 mm by RDSO.
installed. After thorough testing and debugging, the EFI kit has This modification led to higher rate of fuel injection and higher
been retrofitted on a rebuilt diesel locomotive and tested on injection pressure. This modification resulted in increase of
load box followed by brief field trials. A savings of 4% fuel peak fuel line pressure from 750 to 1000 bars and improvement
consumption over the duty cycle has been obtained. In addition in the fuel efficiency of the engine. The existing mechanical
there is an appreciable reduction in the smoke emissions during fuel injection system of the engine consists of three main
steady-state as well as transient operations. components, i.e. the fuel injection pump, the high pressure
tubing connecting the fuel injection pump to the nozzle and the
INTRODUCTION fuel injection nozzle. The fuel injection pump is mounted on
There are about 1000 WDM2 locomotives (Rated power: 2600 the fuel pump support, which is mounted on the side of the
hp) with the Indian Railways. During rebuilding (after 18 years

1 Copyright © 2011 by ASME

engine crankcase. The pump is actuated by the fuel cam lobe of the engine is controlled by varying the field current of the
the camshaft through a lever arm and roller. The pump consists alternator, engine fuelling. Speed control of the engine is done
primarily of a housing, delivery valve and spring, delivery by the electronic governor (In this case the ECU). In response
valve holder, element (plunger and barrel assembly), plunger to the driver’s notch handle and /or road conditions, the loading
spring, a geared control sleeve and control rack (rod) assembly. and fuelling of the engine are varied to maintain a
The pump element comprises a barrel and plunger which are predetermined engine speed at each engine notch. There are
matched, assembled to a very close tolerance. The fuel injection nine engine notches, starting from Idle to the 8th engine notch
pump has three functions, a) to raise the fuel supply pressure to representing rated engine speed and power. The engine power,
a value, which will efficiently atomize the fuel, b) to supply the and torque characteristics w.r.t. engine speed are shown in
correct quantity of fuel to the injection nozzle commensurate Figure 3.
with the power and speed requirements of the engine and c) to
accurately time the delivery of the fuel for efficient and
economical operation of the engine. The nozzle is a low sac
design with nine fuel injection holes. The fuel is injected into a
quiescent combustion chamber; therefore the penetration of the
injected spray is largely dependent on the injection
characteristics of the injector nozzle and the pump injection
pressure.
Present mechanical fuel injection system is not capable to time
the delivery of the fuel based on the engine load and speed.
With only the fuel delivery helix in the fuel injection pump
plunger, the fuel injection timing cannot be varied. As engine
speed and load decreases, the injection timing should be
retarded to have optimum location of peak cylinder pressure. Figure 1: Block diagram of the EFI system integrated to
The mechanical fuel injection system is optimized only for locomotive control system
rated speed and load and at all other operating points, the
engine operates in a sub-optimsed mode.
In a mechanical fuel injection system, response time during
transient operation is higher, which results in over-fueling /
under-fueling and black smoke emission during transient
engine operation [1]. For load control, the mechanical system
has to depend on the engine governor, control-shaft and
linkages, which are prone to defects and require regular
adjustments. The reliability of the mechanical fuel injection
system is also adversely affected due to large number of such
moving parts. By machining an additional helix on the top of
the plunger (top helix), some fixed control of the injection
timing is achievable [2]. Electronic fuel injection system offers
complete flexibility in varying the start of delivery of the fuel to Figure 2: EFI pump-line-nozzle system of ALCO DLW
obtain an optimum pressure curve and low smoke opacity [3]. locomotive [4]
2500
20000
Torque
SYSTEM OVERVIEW 2000
Power
Figure 1 shows the block diagram of the electronically
T orque  (N m )

15000
controlled fuel injection system for the locomotive. Engine 1500
P ow e r ( k W )

speed, cam position, engine boost air pressure, lubricating oil

pressure and coolant temperatures are acquired by the engine 10000
1000
control unit (ECU). Engine fueling is controlled by the ECU by
systematic energizing the magnetic valves fitted on the fuel 5000 500
injection pumps. Drive to the fuel injection pump is through the
camshaft and a lever mechanism (figure 2).
0 0
300 500 700 900 1100
The diesel engine on a locomotive is mechanically coupled to Engine S peed (rpm)
an alternator. Electrical power generated by the alternator is
used by the traction motors fitted on the locomotive axles to Figure 3: Engine torque and power w.r.t. engine speed at
provide traction power to the diesel locomotive. The load on different engine notches [4]

2 Copyright © 2011 by ASME


Using EFI, it is possible to adjust the fuel injection timing
according to load and speed conditions of the engine
dynamically so as to achieve extremely low fuel consumption
and efficient engine operation with lowest pollution potential
[3]. These tasks cannot be performed by a mechanical fuel
injection system. The advantages of EFI system over
mechanical fuel injection system include a) digital setting of
parameters, b) precise and dynamic control of injection timings,
injection duration, c) elimination of hardware, d) protection of
engine, e) online fault diagnostics, display and logging of faults
f) optimized fuel injection for each cylinder and every engine
operating point depending on load and speed condition g)
reduction in smoke opacity levels and particulate matter h)
possibility of cut-off of fuel to individual cylinders i) protection
against hot engine, automatic cut-off of load and fuel and
enhanced safety and flexibility.
Figure 4: Schematic diagram of EFI system [6]
Schematic of the electronic fuel injection system is shown in
Figure 4. Electronic fuel injection system for ALCO engine
consists of electronic fuel injection pump(s), engine control unit
(ECU), sensors (lube oil, speed, boost pressure, water
temperature), wiring harness, injectors, high pressure pipe and
fuel galleries, filters, check valve/ pressure control valves etc.
Before the fitment on the locomotive it is imperative to map the
diesel engine with the EFI on a engine test bed. The engine test
bed at RDSO’s Engine Development Directorate (EDD) is
equipped with a microprocessor based test bed controller. The
ECU of the fuel system must communicate with the Test
controller for testing on the test bed. It was possible to run the
engine by separately controlling the EFI and the test bed
controller. Load control was implemented by the test bed
controller and the engine speed control, separately by the ECU
of the EFI system. However for transient operation
optimization, it was required to have unified load and speed
control from the test bed controller. For this it was required to
have an interface between the test bed controller and the ECU
of EFI. At the same time, it is required to finally fit the EFI
onto a diesel locomotive for carrying out the field trials. For
this also, it was needed to interface the EFI ECU to the
microprocessor based locomotive traction system computer.
On the engine test bed, fitted with mechanical fuel injection
system, two fuel control shafts are actuated by the engine
actuator using servo motor drives. These control shafts control
the rotational movement of the mechanical fuel injection pump
plungers. This rotates the helix on the FIP plunger and changes
the effective stroke and delivered fuel quantity. The operating
system of the test bed controls the engine by load control by
hydraulic dynamometer control and engine speed by fuel
control through the fuel actuator. The system has a number of
channels for analog and digital inputs and outputs. The
requirement was to interface the ECU to the operating system
of the test cell controller such that test cell controller can
control the ECU.
Here the reference speed analog signals in the form of voltage
signals are generated by the DAC (Digital Analog Converter)
module of test commander. These signals are fed to the
interface box, where the signals are processed and converted by
the comparator and encoded into the form of digital binary
signal. These binary signals are then given to the freewheeling
diodes, which drive the relays to generate the Notch signal to
the DC-DC converter and from there to the ECU of EFI system.
The ‘STOP’ and ‘EMERGENCY’ switch signals are directly
fed to the DC-DC Converter unit, by which the engine can be
stopped by the test commander. With this interface, it is
possible to control the speed of the engine at specific engine
notches [7].
LOCOMOTIVE ECU CALIBRATION
Control circuit structure for the EFI is shown in Figure 5.
Figure 5: Control circuit structure for EFI system [7]
3 Copyright © 2011 by ASME
A speed set-point is received by the speed governor (ECU) and
based on the PID map and injection quantity map, an injection
quantity (not limited) is calculated. This injection quantity is
then limited by additional maps such as boost air pressure,
engine water temperature, lube oil pressure and temperature
etc. Based on the limited injection quantity calculation, an
injection duration and start of injection are calculated from pre-
determined maps. The engine speed and cam phasing are
measured by employing suitable sensors and are used in the
feedback loop. These form the basis for feedback loop control
of the engine speed vis-à-vis the engine speed set-point and the
firing order of the engine. The magnetic valves on the fuel
injection pumps are energized based on the firing order map of
the engine. For ECU calibration it is required to create different
fuel limitation and safety maps for the engine. Figure 7: BSFC at different fuel delivery start angles for
different engine notches

SOP timing with the lowest BSFC was used to program the
40
ECU of the EFI. Start of pumping map is shown in Figure 8.
Delivery Period(CAD)

30

20

10

0
2000
1500 1500
1000 1000
500 500
Fuel injection quantity(mm3/stroke) 0 0 Engine speed (rpm)

Figure 6: Delivery period map notch-wise, SOP at 33.5º BTDC

At different fuel injection quantities, the engine rpm was varied

and the fuel injection duration in CAD was recorded on the
ECU’s software. A map was thus created and saved into the
calibration maps of the ECU (Figure 6). This exercise was
repeated at different SOP timings and the injection duration at
each combination of fuel quantity and engine speed was plotted
respectively. The ECU calculates the injection duration at a
particular speed and load by interpolating the values from these
four maps. This injection duration is used to determine the
solenoid energizing duration.
Brake specific fuel consumption (BSFC) vis-à-vis fuel delivery
start timing sweeps was calculated to obtain the most suitable
start of fuel delivery at different engine notches. This is shown
in Figure 7. Brake specific fuel consumption was found to be
lowest at different SOP timing for different engine notches.
Figure 8: Start of pumping map (SOP)
In this map, x-axis shows the engine speed, y-axis shows the
delivered fuel quantity in mm3/stroke and the z-axis shows the
start of pumping of fuel. Notable is that as the engine speed
increases the start of pumping gets retarded in order to operate
at the optimum point of operation.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
Figures 9 & 10 present the reduction in BSFC and the smoke
opacity levels of the engine fitted with EFI in comparison to the
mechanical fuel injection system.

4 Copyright © 2011 by ASME

 50
EFI engine
45
Mechanical Engine
40

35

Smoke Opacity  (%)
30

25

20

15

10

0
Idle 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Engine Notch
Figure 9: Comparison of brake specific fuel consumption of Figure 10: Comparison of smoke opacity levels of EFI and
EFI and mechanical system mechanical system
Reasons for the improvement in the brake specific fuel
EFI system delivers 3.3% fuel saving in passenger duty cycle consumption and the reduction in the smoke opacity levels
and 3.97% in freight duty cycle. Apart from the fuel savings, were further investigated by studying the fuel line pressure,
there is very strong reduction in smoke opacity of the needle lift, in-cylinder pressure and the heat release rates in
locomotive exhaust. The black smoke emission from the loco is comparison to the mechanical fuel injection system. These are
completely eliminated even in transient operating conditions. shown in Figure 10.

Idle engine notch

5th engine notch

8th engine notch

Figure 11: Comparison of the fuel line pressure, injector needle lift and the in-cylinder pressures of EFI vis-à-vis mechanical fuel
injection system locomotives

5 Copyright © 2011 by ASME

Figure 11 shows that the EFI has been able to retard the fuel
injection timing at lower engine notches. This has resulted in
optimum in-cylinder pressures at all engine notches. At all
engine notches except the 7th and 8th notch, peak in-cylinder
pressures obtained with EFI are lower than mechanical EFI. At
higher engine notches, the fuel injection timing with EFI had to
be relatively advanced because of smaller plunger diameter of
the EFI as compared to the mechanical system. This reduces the
brake specific fuel consumption at 7th and 8th notches also,
however the peak in-cylinder pressures are higher than
mechanical system. These are however within the rated peak
cylinder pressure of the engine block.
Instantaneous heat release rates in the cylinder (Figure 12) also
indicate that the fitment and calibration of EFI has been able to
shift the heat release rates to optimum points for maximum 5th engine notch
utilization of the fuel energy. At higher engine notches, due to
constraint of the lower plunger diameter of the EFI pump (as
compared to the mechanical FI pump), the start of delivery
timing had to be advanced. This was required to deliver
required fuel quantity at higher engine notches. Retarding the
fuel injection timing with EFI pump led to longer fuel injection
pulse and increase in total hydrocarbons (THCs) emissions in
the exhaust and increase in exhaust temperatures (beyond
design limit) due to after-burning of these hydrocarbons. To
study the effect of a larger EFI pump plunger diameter and
higher fuel cam rate, in a separate study, a 1-D thermodynamic
model of the engine under research was set-up and engine
performance simulated.
This model was used to study the effect of higher mean
effective injection pressure (MEIP) of fuel due to larger EFI 8th engine notch
plunger diameter and higher fuel cam rate. A higher MEIP and Figure 12: Comparison of the instantaneous heat release
high fuel injection pressure with retarded SOP timings at higher between EFI and mechanical fuel injection system
engine notches is expected to reduce the BSFC, PM and NOx
emissions simultaneously [8]. Some of the results of the simulations with effect of MEIP and
start of injection (SOI) are shown in Table 2. Simulations were
carried out at compatible combinations of injection timing and
MEIP, therefore only the diagonal combinations were covered.
Moderately higher MEIP (675 bar) with an injection timing of -
7.5 CAD ATDC produces the lowest BSFC. Therefore,
development of a larger diameter EFI pump plunger and a
higher cam rate fuel cam is future subject of research.

Table 2: Effect of MEIP and Injection timing on brake specific

fuel consumption

Injection timing
(ATDC)/
MEIP(bar) 900 765 600 675 1100
-3.5 250
Idle engine notch
-5 237
-9.5 228
-7.5 228
-3.5 260

6 Copyright © 2011 by ASME

After detailed calibration of the EFI on the engine test bed, the
system has been installed on a locomotive. For this the ECU of
the EFI has been interfaced with the traction control system of
the locomotive. Locomotive has been successfully operated
with this arrangement and put into service with reduction in
fuel consumption (over control locomotive) by about 4%.
CONCLUSIONS
An electronic fuel injection system has been developed for the
diesel locomotives. This involved design and development of
suitable interfaces between the ECU of the EFI, test bed
controller and the locomotive traction control computer.
Mapping of the engine and determination of optimum fuel
injection quantities and start of fuel delivery was done. A
reduction in BSFC of 4% has been achieved by the EFI and a
significant reduction in smoke opacity levels has also been
obtained. Reasons for the improvement in the brake specific
fuel consumption and the reduction in the smoke opacity levels
were further investigated by studying the fuel line pressure,
needle lift, in-cylinder pressure and the heat release rates in
comparison to the mechanical fuel injection system. EFI has
been able to optimize the SOP according to different speeds
and loads. Lower in-cylinder peak pressures are obtained with
EFI as compared to the mechanical fuel injection system except
at higher engine notches. At higher engine notches, (namely 7th
and 8th engine notch), SOP had to be advanced due to smaller
plunger diameter of the EFI pump (as compared to the
mechanical FI) in order to deliver required quantity of fuel and
to reduce THC emissions and exhaust gas temperatures due to
after-burning. A higher plunger diameter with a shorter fuel
injection pulse will be helpful in retarding the injection timing
at 7th and 8th notch and reducing the peak cylinder pressures. A
1-D mathematical model of the engine has been developed and
the effect of MEIP and the fuel cam rate has been studied. A
View publication stats
higher plunger diameter EFI pump with a higher fuel cam rate
is expected to optimize performance and emissions at higher
engine notches.
REFERENCES
[1] Flis T.J., ‘The Use of Microprocessors for Electronic
Engine Control, IEEE transactions on Industrial
Electronics, Vol. IE-30, No. 2, 1983.
[2] Kathpal A.K., Gautam A., Agarwal Avinash. K., Baskaran
R., ‘Design and development of double helix fuel injection
pump for four stroke V-16 rail traction diesel engine’, ICEF
2007-1651, Proceedings of the ASME Internal Combustion
Engine Division, Fall Technical Conference, 2007.
[3] Nakai Hiroaki, Konishi Yukio, Fukushima Akira, ‘An
electronically controlled fuel injection system for new diesel
engines’, JSAE Review 18, 57-82, 1997.
[4] “Programming of Heinzmann Digital Governors”, Manual
No. DG 95 110-e, 2001.
[5] “Power uprating of ALCO engine”, Engine Development
Directorate, RDSO internal report, 2000.
[6] Bosch India presentation on Electronic Fuel Injection
system for diesel locomotives, 2011.
[7] “Interfacing of EFI to Test controller and to the diesel
locomotive”, RDSO Engine Development internal report,
2011.
[8] “Reduction of exhaust emissions from diesel locomotives of
Indian Railways”, RDSO Engine Development Directorate
internal report, 2009.
7 Copyright © 2011 by ASME