11/3/2016

Common Rail Injection System Pressure Control

DieselNet Technology Guide Diesel Fuel Injection Common Rail Fuel Injection
DieselNet.com. Copyright Ecopoint Inc. Revision 2014.02

Common Rail Injection System Pressure

Control
Hannu Jskelinen, Alessandro Ferrari

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Abstract: There are several approaches to control the pressure in the common rail. One early
approach method was to supply more fuel than is needed to the common rail and use a pressure
control valve to spill the excess fuel back to the fuel tank. A more preferred approach is to meter
the fuel at the high pressure pump in order to minimize the amount of fuel pressurized to the rail
pressure. A variety of fuel metering can be used for the later. Some practical common rail
implementations utilize both approaches with the control strategy depending on the engine
operating conditions.
Introduction
Pressure Control Valve
Pump Metering
Practical Rail Pressure Control

1. Introduction
Production common rail fuel systems are equipped with a closed-loop high pressure control-system that
stabilizes the rail pressure within a relatively small margin to the nominal value specified by the electronic
control unit for a given engine operating condition. The pump maintains the rail pressure by continuously
delivering fuel to the common rail. This pressure is monitored by a pressure sensor and the difference
between the nominal rail pressure value and the measured one is the input signal for the controller. In
control terminology, the rail pressure is the system output while the position of the actuator used to
control the rail pressure is the system input.
There are a number of approaches to control the pressure in the common rail. One way is to supply
more fuel than is needed to the common rail and use a high pressure regulatorcommonly referred to
as a pressure control valvein the high-pressure circuit to spill the excess fuel back to the fuel tank. In
this approach, the pressure control valve position is the control system input. While this approach was
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used exclusively in some early fuel injection systems such as those with Bosch CP1 pumps (Figure 1
and Figure 2), poor efficiency and an excessively high fuel return temperatures can result.
Another approach is to meter the fuel at the high pressure pump to ensure that only the amount of fuel
required by the injectors is supplied to the common rail. A number of pump metering approaches are
possible. One common approach is to meter the fuel drawn into the pump (inlet metering) with some
type of inlet metering valve (IMV)sometimes also referred to simply as a fuel metering valve (FMV).
Another approach is to allow the pump to draw in an uncontrolled amount of fuel and meter the pumps
discharge flow (outlet metering) with a valve such as an outlet metering valve (OMV). Another means is
to vary the effective displacement of the high pressure pump. By carefully controlling the amount of fuel
entering the pump and avoiding compression of excess fuel to high pressure, the fuel injection system
hydraulic efficiency can be improved and generation of excessively high fuel temperatures can be
avoided. It should be noted, however, that metering the fuel at the injection pump may not avoid the
need for a high pressure regulator. A pressure regulator can still be used to provide some trimming of
the rail pressure.

2. Pressure Control Valve

A pressure control valve (PCV) for controlling rail pressure can be located at one rail extremity (pumpexternal PCV), Figure 1, or at the pump outlet (pump-integrated PCV), Figure 2. The pump-external
PCV leads to lower pump manufacturing costs but the proximity of the regulator to the injectors can
introduce additional disturbances in injector dynamics. In the pump-integrated PCV solution, the fuel
throttled by the control valve joins the leakage flow from the pumping chambers as well as the fuel
flowing in the pumps cooling and lubrication circuits. This combined flow is discharged from the pump
to return to the fuel tank.

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Common Rail Injection System Pressure Control

Figure 1. Common rail diesel fuel injection system with pressure control valve located on
the rail
(Source: Bosch)

Figure 2. Bosch CP1 pump with integrated pressure control valve

(Source: Bosch)

Rail pressure control with a PCV is inherently fast because of the proximity of the system input (PCV)
and system output (rail pressure sensor). In other words, the system does not include the delay resulting
from fuel passing through the high pressure pump as would be the case for some of the pump metering
approaches.

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