Basic Principles

Purpose of Fuel Injection System

The performance of diesel engines is heavily influenced by their injection
system design. In fact, the most notable advances achieved in diesel engines
resulted directly from superior fuel injection system designs. While the main
purpose of the system is to deliver fuel to the cylinders of a diesel engine, it is
how that fuel is delivered that makes the difference in engine performance,
emissions, and noise characteristics.
Unlike its spark-ignited engine counterpart, the diesel fuel injection system
delivers fuel under extremely high injection pressures. This implies that the
system component designs and materials should be selected to withstand
higher stresses in order to perform for extended durations that match the
engines durability targets. Greater manufacturing precision and tight
tolerances are also required for the system to function efficiently. In addition
to expensive materials and manufacturing costs, diesel injection systems are
characterized by more intricate control requirements. All these features add
up to a system whose cost may represent as much as 30% of the total cost of
the engine.
The main purpose of the fuel injection system is to deliver fuel into the
cylinders of an engine. In order for the engine to effectively make use of this
fuel:
i.

Fuel must be injected at the proper time, that is, the injection timing
must be controlled and

ii.

The correct amount of fuel must be delivered to meet power

requirement, that is, injection metering must be controlled.

However, it is still not enough to deliver an accurately metered amount of

fuel at the proper time to achieve good combustion. Additional aspects are
critical to ensure proper fuel injection system performance including:
Fuel atomizationensuring that fuel atomizes into very small fuel
particles is a primary design objective for diesel fuel injection systems.
Small droplets ensure that all the fuel has a chance to vaporize and
participate in the combustion process. Any remaining liquid droplets
burn very poorly or are exhausted out of the engine. While modern
fuel injection systems are able to produce fuel atomization
characteristics far exceeding what is needed to ensure complete fuel
evaporation during most of the injection process, some injection
system designs may have poor atomization during some brief but
critical periods of the injection phase. The end of the injection process
is one such critical period.
Bulk mixingWhile fuel atomization and complete evaporation of fuel
is critical, ensuring that the evaporated fuel has sufficient oxygen
during the combustion process is equally as important to ensure high
combustion efficiency and optimum engine performance. The oxygen
is provided by the intake air trapped in the cylinder and a sufficient
amount must be entrained into the fuel jet to completely mixed with
the available fuel during the injection process and ensure complete
combustion.
Air utilizationEffective utilization of the air in the combustion
chamber is closely tied to bulk mixing and can be accomplished
through a combination of fuel penetration into the dense air that is
compressed in the cylinder and dividing the total injected fuel into a
number of jets. A sufficient number of jets should be provided to

entrain as much of available air as possible while avoiding jet overlap

and the production of fuel rich zones that are oxygen deficient.
The primary purposes of the diesel fuel injection system are graphically
represented in Figure 1.
Figure 1. Main Functions of Diesel Fuel Injection System

Definition of Terms
Many specialized concepts and terms are used to describe the components
and the operation of diesel fuel injection systems. Some of the more common
of these include[Breitbach 2002][Bosch 2004]:
Nozzle refers to the part of the nozzle body/needle assembly which
interfaces with the combustion chamber of the engine. Terms like P-Type,
M-Type, or S-Type nozzle refer to standardized dimensions of nozzle
parameters, as per ISO specifications.
Nozzle holder or injector body refers to the part the nozzle is mounted
on. In conventional injection systems this part mainly served the nozzle
mounting and nozzle needle spring preloading function. In common rail
systems, it contains the main functional parts: the servo-hydraulic circuit
and the hydraulic actuator (electromagnetic or piezoelectric).
Injector commonly refers to the nozzle holder and nozzle assembly.
Start of injection (SOI) or injection timing is the time at which
injection of fuel into the combustion chamber begins. It is usually expressed
in crank angle degrees (CAD) relative to TDC of the compression stroke. In
some cases, it is important to differentiate between the indicated SOI
and actual SOI. SOI is often indicated by an easily measured parameter such
as the time that an electronic trigger is sent to the injector or a signal from a
needle lift sensor that indicates when the injector needle valve starts to open.
The point in the cycle where this occurs is the indicated SOI. Due to the

mechanical response of the injector, there can be a delay between the

indicated SOI and the actual SOI when fuel exits the injector nozzle into the
combustion chamber. The difference between the actual SOI and indicated
SOI is the injector lag.
Start of delivery. In some fuel systems, fuel injection is coordinated with
the generation of high pressure. In such systems, the start of delivery is the
time when the high pressure pump starts to deliver fuel to the injector. The
difference between start of delivery and SOI is affected by the length of time
it takes for a pressure wave to travel between the pump and injector and is
influenced by the length of line between the high pressure pump and the
injector and by the speed of sound in the fuel. The difference between the
start of delivery and SOI can be referred to as injection delay.
End of injection (EOI) is the time in the cycle when fuel injection stops.
Injected fuel quantity is the amount of fuel delivered to an engine
cylinder per power stroke. It is often expressed in mm3/stroke or mg/stroke.
Injection duration is the period of time during which fuel enters the
combustion chamber from the injector. It is the difference between EOI and
SOI and is related to injection quantity.
Injection pattern. The rate of injection of fuel often varies during the
injection duration period. Figure 2 shows three common rate shapes: boot,
ramp and square. Opening rate and closing rate refers to the gradients in
the rate of injection during needle nozzle opening and closing events,
respectively.

Figure 2. Common injection rate shapes

Multiple injection events. While conventional fuel injection systems

employ a single injection event for every engine cycle, newer systems can use
multiple injection events. Figure 3 defines some of the common terms used
to describe multiple injection events. It should be noted that the terminology
is not always consistent. The main injection event provides the bulk of the
fuel for the engine cycle. One or more injections before the main
injection, pre-injections, provide a small amount of fuel before the main
injection event. Pre-injections can also be referred to as pilot injection. Some
refer to a pre-injection that occurs a relatively long time before the main
injection as a pilot and one that occurs a relatively short time before the
main injection as a pre-injection. Injections after the main injections, postinjections, can occur immediately after the main injection (close postinjection) or a relatively long time after the main injection (late postinjection). Post-injections are sometimes called after-injections. While there
is considerable variation in terminology, a close post-injection will be
referred to as a post-injection and a late post-injection as an after-injection.
Figure 3. Multiple Injection Events

The term split injection is occasionally used to refer to multiple injection

strategies where a main injection is split into two smaller injections of
approximately equal size or into a smaller pre-injection followed by a main
injection.

Unintended post-injections can occur in some fuel injection systems when

the nozzle momentarily re-opens after closing. These are sometimes referred
to assecondary injections.
Injection pressure is not used consistently in the literature. It may refer to
the mean pressure in the hydraulic system for common rail systems, or to the
maximum pressure during an injection (peak injection pressure) in
conventional systems.

Basic Fuel System Components

Fuel Injection System Components

With a few exceptions, fuel systems can be broken down into two major
component groups:
Low pressure side componentsThese components serve to
safely and reliably deliver fuel from the tank to the fuel injection
system. Low pressure side components include the fuel tank, fuel
supply pump and the fuel filter.
High pressure side componentsComponents that create high
pressures, meter and deliver the fuel to the combustion chamber. They
include the high pressure pump the fuel injector and fuel injection
nozzle. Some systems may also include an accumulator.
Fuel injection nozzles can be categorized as hole-type or throttling pintle
type and as either a closed or open. Closed nozzles can be actuated
hydraulically using a simple spring-biased mechanism or using servo
control. Open nozzles as well as some newer closed nozzle injector designs
can be directly actuated.
Metering of the injected fuel amount is commonly carried out in either the
high pressure pump or the fuel injector. A number of different fuel metering

approaches exist including: pressure metered at a constant time interval

(PT), time metered at a constant pressure (TP) and time/stroke metered
(TS).
Most fuel injection systems use electronics to control the opening and
closing of the nozzle. Electrical signals are converted into mechanical forces
using some type of actuator. Commonly, these actuators can be either
electromagnetic solenoids or active materials such a piezoelectric ceramics.
Basic fuel injection system components are discussed in a separate paper.