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Electronic Fuel Management in I.C Engines G Nagarajan Professor Department of Mechanical Engg. Anna University Chennai 60025

This document discusses electronic fuel management systems in internal combustion engines. It describes how electronic control units use sensor data to precisely control fuel injection and achieve optimal air-fuel ratios for improved fuel efficiency and reduced emissions. It explains the different types of fuel injection systems used in gasoline and diesel engines, including throttle body injection, multiport injection, and direct injection. The key components of engine management systems - sensors, electronic control module, and fuel injectors - are also outlined.

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82 views5 pages

Electronic Fuel Management in I.C Engines G Nagarajan Professor Department of Mechanical Engg. Anna University Chennai 60025

This document discusses electronic fuel management systems in internal combustion engines. It describes how electronic control units use sensor data to precisely control fuel injection and achieve optimal air-fuel ratios for improved fuel efficiency and reduced emissions. It explains the different types of fuel injection systems used in gasoline and diesel engines, including throttle body injection, multiport injection, and direct injection. The key components of engine management systems - sensors, electronic control module, and fuel injectors - are also outlined.

Uploaded by

alagarg137691
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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ELECTRONIC FUEL MANAGEMENT IN I.

C ENGINES
G Nagarajan
Professor
Department of Mechanical Engg.
Anna University
Chennai 60025

1.0 INTRODUCTION

The enormous advances in electronic technology throughout the 1980s and early
1990s have brought about changes in the status of automobile electronics.
Reliability has improved greatly and costs have been reduced. Electronic
components are now much smaller drastically reducing weight, space and
electrical power requirements. With the availability of powerful and inexpensive
microprocessors, computing power is no longer a limitation to the development of
electronic control systems.

With increasing emphasis on achieving substantial improvements in automotive


fuel economy, automotive engineers are striving hard to develop engines that
provide both significantly reduced fuel consumption and compliance of stringent
emission requirements. In the automotive sector, the demands imposed by
increasingly severe emission control legislation have led to the conventional fuel
systems being completely superseded by electronic fuel injection system that
makes use of an Electronic Control Unit (ECU) or Electronic Control Module
(ECM).

With the introduction of an ECU, a large number of parameters can be monitored


with the help of a number of sensors thereby a closed-loop control can be
achieved. After receiving the signals transmitted by the sensors the ECU
processes these data in order to generate control signals for the actuators. The
software program for closed loop control is stored in the ECU’s memory and the
program is controlled by a micro-controller. Today in the most modern
automobile the contribution of software is one third of the total cost of controller’s
hardware and software.

2.0 ENGINE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM IN SI ENGINE

Fuel management in Spark Ignition (SI) engine refers to delivering the fuel in
optimum quantities to suit the various operating conditions of the engine. The
power output, fuel consumption and exhaust gas composition of a SI engine
depends upon the air fuel ratio. Ignition at the right time and complete
combustion takes place only at particular air fuel ratios. In the case of gasoline
(Petrol) the ideal air fuel ratio is 14.7:1. Deviations from these ratios are
necessary in some cases to achieve the desired performance. The amount of
fuel to be supplied depends on the load, engine speed and ambient temperature.
Depending upon the operating condition the mixture strength will have to be
altered.

For example idling requires a rich mixture to ensure proper burning under
conditions of charge dilution (Exhaust gases from previous cycle mixes with fresh
charge during the valve overlap period due to high vacuum present previously in
the induction manifold).Full load operations will require a rich mixture in order to
utilize all the air breathe in and thus provide maximum power. The injection
system is expected to provide all these mixture strengths at different operating
conditions.

Engine management system has evolved into an ultimate to technology but it has
to be understood that the reduction in exhaust emissions is brought about only by
the three way catalytic converter (TWC). In order to achieve the highest possible
efficiency of the TWC a Lambda closed loop system enables the control unit to
keep the air-fuel mixture in the combustion chamber within a very narrow range
around the stoichiometric ratio.

There are three different types of electronic fuel injection systems available
namely
1. Throttle Body Injection (TBI) system
2. Multipoint or Multiport Injection (MPFI) system or Port Fuel Injection (PFI)
system
3. Gasoline Direct Injection (GDI) system

In TBI system, the injector will be located in the throttle body itself which would
spray the fuel directly on the intake manifold. In PFI system, each cylinder will be
having its own injector and the fuel will be sprayed onto the intake valve. In GDI
system, the fuel will be sprayed directly inside the engine cylinder.

The engine management systems have three major components namely


sensors, ECU and Actuators (Fuel Injectors, Ignition system etc.)

3.0 ENGINE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM IN CI ENGINE

As in the case SI engines a microcontroller controls the various factors, including


amount of fuel, timing of injection, timing of the charge and the pressure within
the tubes or common rails. There are two technologies available in CI engine
system namely Unit Injector system and Common Rail Direct Injection (CRDI)
system. CRDI has provided a tremendous boost in diesel-engine performance,
improvement in fuel economy and reduced emissions compared to conventional
diesel engines. The improvement is mainly due to the common-rail design, which
has tubes that connect all the injectors.

This new electronic technology has also allowed diesel engines to better control
the amount of fuel used, the pressure within the system and the timing of both
the injection of fuel and the electronic charge applied to make the fuel burn.
Injectors in the common rail direct injection engine have controls on the injector
heads that allow slight variances in the amount of fuel injected into the cylinders.
In CRDI system the fuel that is introduced inside the cylinder can be injected in
stages that is capable of reducing emissions significantly. CRDI system is the
only technology that has the potential for reducing both particulates and oxides of
nitrogen simultaneously.

CRDI engine fitted cars offer 25% more power than the normal direct injection
engine with a superior pickup and torque offering sometimes up to 70% more
power than the conventional diesel engines. The technology is being introduced
by more and more manufacturers.

4.0 SENSORS

Various parts of the engine and fuel system have sensors that send
electric signals to ECM. Each sensor is a device that receives and reacts to the
signal such as the change in the temperature, pressure or voltage. An electronic
fuel injection system has the following sensors (few may not be required in CI
engines) to sense the change in the operating conditions of the engine. Sensors
that send signals to ECU include

 Engine speed - Monitors the speed of the engine


 Throttle position (TPS) -Senses the movement of the throttle plate
 Manifold absolute pressure (MAP) - Senses the pressure inside the
engine manifold
 Engine coolant temperature (CTS) - Senses the temperature of the
engine coolant
 Inlet temperature (IAT) - Checks the temperature of air entering
the engine
 Exhaust gas oxygen (EGO) - Senses amount of oxygen present
in the exhaust
 Air flow (MAF) - Monitors mass flow of air into the engine cylinder
 Crankshaft position (CMP) - Gives the TDC position of cylinder
no.1
 Knock - Senses the knocking of the engine

5.0 ELECTRONIC CONTROL MODULE

The ECM receives the information from all the above sensors continuously. It
checks these values with actual data stored in the look up table available in its
memory (ROM). ROM permanently store calibrations, specifications and the
engine control program or strategies that the microprocessor follows in decision-
making. Using this information, the ECM continuously calculates how much of
the fuel is to be injected. Then the injectors are opened at the appropriate time
for the required time so that the desired air-fuel ratio is achieved.

For example the ECM might hold the injector open only for 0.0002 seconds each
time they open. The duration in which the ECM signals the injector to remain
open is called the injector pulse width. These are the controlling pulses, which
decide the states of injection in the fuel injectors.

6.0 FUEL INJECTORS

The injector is an electro-magnetic type injection nozzle, which injects fuel


according to the signal from engine control module. As the lift stroke of the
needle of the injector is set constant, the amount of fuel injected is determined by
the length of time during which the solenoid is energised.

The schematic of the electronic fuel injection used in SI engine developed by


Bosch Corporation is shown in Figure 1. The arrangement is very similar for
CRDI system as well.

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