Air-fuel mixing & Injection in IC

Engines
 Injection in SI engines
• In a carburetor the air flows through a venturi
nozzle. The pressure difference between the
carburetor inlet and the throat of the nozzle is
used to meter the appropriate fuel flow.
The fuel enters the air stream through the fuel
discharge tube in the carburetor body, then it is
atomized by air stream past the throttle plate
and into the intake manifold
 Throttle Body
The throttle body is the part of the air
intake system that controls the amount of
air flowing into the engine, in response to
engine speed.

Typically throttle is a butterfly valve

Fuel Injection in
CI Engines
 Injection in CI engines
In compression-ignition engines air is introduced into the
cylinder. After compression fuel is injected into the
combustion chamber by the fuel injection system.

The injection can be :

Direct (the fuel is injected into a single open combustion

chamber)

Indirect (the combustion chamber consists of regions, a

main chamber and prechamber where the fuel is injected into)
Combustion chamber design for
CI engines
 Requirements of Injection System
The injection system must fulfil the following requirements:

1- The diesel fuel injection systems must have high injection

pressure for two reasons:
the fuel pressure must be greater than the compression pressure
the fuel should be evaporated quickly therefore small droplet size
is desirable which is the function of the injection pressure

2- The injection system must be able to meter the fuel flow (by
governors). It is essential to supply the right proportion of fuel to the
engine for the sake of the best achievable performance.

3- The injection process should be free of pulsation avoiding

pressure fluctuation.
4- The injection of bulk fuel should not be followed by subsequent
small secondary injections.
This phenomenon causes high hydrocarbon, soot and particle
emission and efficiency decreases.

To accomplish these tasks, fuel is usually drawn from the fuel tank
by a supply pump and forced through a filter to the injection pump.
The injection pump sends fuel under pressure to the nozzle pipes
which carry fuel to the injector nozzles located in each cylinder
head.
 Purpose of Fuel Injection System
• The performance of diesel engines is heavily
influenced by their injection system design.
• While the main purpose of the system is to deliver
fuel to the cylinders of a diesel engine, in order for the
engine to effectively make use of this fuel:
 Fuel must be injected at the proper time, that is, the
injection timing must be controlled and
 The correct amount of fuel must be delivered to meet
power requirement, that is, injection metering must be
controlled.
• Additional aspects are critical to ensure proper fuel
injection system performance including

 Fuel atomization—Ensuring 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.
 Bulk mixing—Ensuring that the evaporated fuel has
sufficient oxygen during the combustion process. 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 mix with the available
fuel during the injection process and ensure complete
combustion.

 Air utilization—Effective utilization of the air in the

combustion chamber is 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.
 Definition of Terms
Following terms are used to describe the components and
the operation of diesel fuel injection systems:

• Nozzle refers to the part of the nozzle body/needle

assembly which interfaces with the combustion chamber
of the engine.
• Nozzle holder or injector body refers to the part the
nozzle is mounted on. In conventional injection
systems this part mainly serves the nozzle mounting
and nozzle needle spring preloading function.
• 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.
• Start of delivery Start of delivery is the time when the
high pressure pump starts to deliver fuel to the injector.
The main tasks of the injector nozzle

Provide homogenous fuel jet

Satisfactory droplet size

Promote fuel jet development (structure, shape,

penetration)

Adjustable opening and closing pressure

Avoid back flow

• 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 .

• Injection duration is the period of time during

which fuel enters the combustion chamber from the
injector.

• Injection pressure It may refer to the maximum

pressure during an injection (peak injection pressure)
• Injection pattern. The rate of injection of fuel often
varies during the injection duration period. Figure
shows three common rate shapes: boot, ramp and
square. `
 Multiple injection
• While conventional fuel injection systems employ a
single injection event for every engine cycle, newer
systems can use multiple injection events.
The main injection event provides the bulk of the
fuel for the engine cycle
pre-injections, provide a small amount of fuel before
the main injection event
post-injections, can occur immediately after the main
injection
Classification of Injection System
• Air Injection System
• Solid Injection System

Air injection system uses multistage air

compressor that creates high mean effective P
to enhance air fuel mixing.
 Solid Injection System
Solid Injection System Components
• Low pressure side components—These components
deliver fuel from the tank to the fuel injection system,
including the fuel tank, fuel supply pump and the fuel
filter.
• High pressure side components—Components 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.

• Metering of the injected fuel amount is commonly

carried out in either the high pressure pump or the
fuel injector
 Pump-line-nozzle (P-L-N) system
The pump-line-nozzle (P-L-N) system, also called the
pump-pipe-nozzle system, was the dominant type of
diesel injection system in all diesel engine
applications.

• Most P-L-N systems can be classified into three

categories, based on the type of the injection pump,
as follows:
• In-line injection pumps
• Unit injection pumps
• Distributor (rotary) type injection pumps
 Unit Injector Pump

• Unit pump systems were used to maintain short

injection lines between the pump and injector.
Injection pump and injector nozzle are combined in a
single component.
Each unit pump is installed on the engine, close to the
cylinder.
It is driven by the camshaft of the engine. Since the
unit pump system uses a separate pump for each
cylinder.
In a unit injector, the device is usually lubricated and
cooled by the fuel itself.
• While the P-L-N system has been displaced by
common rail with less stringent emission
standards.
Electronic Fuel Injection system
• In distributor type injection pump one central
pumping element is used to produce the high
injection pressure.
This high pressure fuel is then introduced into a
distributor assembly that diverts it to the proper
injector and cylinder according to the engine firing
order.
Reducing the number of pumping elements for a
multi-cylinder diesel engine reduces the cost of the
expensive high precision machined parts of the
pumping element and makes its cost more appropriate
for the small car market.