Indirect Injection
Indirect Injection
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search In an internal combustion engine, the term indirect injection refers to a fuel injection where fuel is not directly injected into the combustion chamber. Gasoline engines are usually equipped with indirect injection systems, wherein a fuel injector delivers the fuel at some point before the intake valve. An indirect injection diesel engine delivers fuel into a chamber off the combustion chamber, called a prechamber, where combustion begins and then spreads into the main combustion chamber. The prechamber is carefully designed to ensure adequate mixing of the atomized fuel with the compression-heated air. This has the effect of slowing the rate of combustion, which tends to reduce audible noise and softens the shock of combustion and produces lower stresses on the engine components. The addition of a prechamber, however, increases heat loss to the cooling system and thereby lowers engine efficiency and requiring glow plugs for starting. In an indirect injection system the fuel/air mixing occurs with the air moving fast. This simplifies injector design and allows the use smaller engines and less tightly toleranced designs which are simpler to manufacture and more reliable.Direct injection, by contrast, uses slow-moving air and fast-moving fuel; both the design and manufacture of the injectors is more difficult, the optimisation of the in-cylinder air flow is much more difficult than designing a prechamber, and there is much more integration between the design of the injector and that of the engine it is to be used in.[1] It is for this reason that car diesel engines were almost all indirect injection until the ready availability of powerful CFD simulation systems made the adoption of direct injection practical..[citation needed] Aside from the above advantages, early diesels often employed indirect injection in order to use simple, flat-top pistons, and made the positioning of the early, bulky diesel injectors easier..[citation needed]
Contents
1 Classification of indirect combustion chambers (prechambers) o 1.1 Swirl chamber o 1.2 Precombustion chamber o 1.3 Air cell chamber 2 Advantages of indirect injection combustion chambers 3 Disadvantages 4 Maintenance hazards 5 References
Disadvantages
1. Specific fuel consumption is high because of heat loss due to large exposed areas and pressure loss due to air motion through the throats. 2. Glowplugs are needed for a cold engine start. 3. Because the heat and pressure of combustion is applied to one specific point on the piston as it exits the precombustion chamber or swirl chamber, such engines are less suited to high specific power outputs (such as turbocharging or tuning) than direct injection diesels. The increased temperature and pressure on one part of the piston crown causes uneven expansion which can lead to cracking, distortion or other damage. This can be solved by designing the pistons to have a slight oval shape so that when heated unevenly they become circular.[citation needed] The higher the power required from a given engine design the greater degree of ovality is required until it becomes impractical.[citation needed] Direct injection engines deliver fuel to the centre of the piston crown, negating these problems.
Maintenance hazards
Fuel injection introduces potential hazards in engine maintenance due to the high fuel pressures used. Residual pressure can remain in the fuel lines long after an injection-equipped engine has been shut down. This residual pressure must be relieved, and if it is done so by external bleedoff, the fuel must be safely contained. If a high-pressure diesel fuel injector is removed from its seat and operated in open air, there is a risk to the operator of injury by hypodermic jetinjection, even with only 100 psi pressure. [6]. The first known such injury occurred in 1937 during a diesel engine maintenance operation .[7]