Documenti di Didattica
Documenti di Professioni
Documenti di Cultura
Members Section
Common Rail and Camshaftless Engines
Medium Speed Common Rail Systems
Other Pages The Basics The 2 Stroke Engine The 4 Stroke Engine Operation Members
Medium speed engines are increasingly using common rail fuel systems and electronic injection to give smokeless,
economical operation over a wide load range.
These engines are not camshaftless: they all use the camshaft to operate the inlet and exhaust valves, although some
employ variable timing on these by introducing an hydraulic element. Some engines use camshaft driven fuel pumps to
supply a common rail.
The system below shows the principle behind the MTU common rail system. Fuel is pressurised by two crankshaft driven
variable delivery pumps to a common rail. From the common rail it is led via an accumulator (to damp out pressure pulses
in the system) to the injector. The injector is opened at the correct time by an electronically controlled shuttle valve from
the engine management system.
1 of 4 06-02-2017 22:59
Medium Speed Common Rail Systems http://www.marinediesels.co.uk/members/Camshaftless/med_speed_elec...
The diagram below shows the principle of operation of the common rail system for the Wartsila range of medium speed
engines.
Drawing 1 No Injection
There is one fuel pump and one accumulator for every two cylinders. The accumulators are connected together by a
common rail. The fuel pumps are driven by the camshaft and discharge to an accumulator. The flow fuse is a safety
feature which automatically cuts off injection in case of excessive leakage.
2 of 4 06-02-2017 22:59
Medium Speed Common Rail Systems http://www.marinediesels.co.uk/members/Camshaftless/med_speed_elec...
Drawing 3 Injection
When the shuttle valve reaches the lower limit of travel the top of the piston on the injector is no longer pressurised and
the fuel pressure opens the needle valve allowing injection to take place. At the end of injection the shuttle valve moves
upwards, pressurising the top of the piston, ensuring positive closing of the needle valve, before finally shutting the fuel
off to the injector as it reaches the upper limit of travel as shown in drawing No1
Two sensors are provided on the Flywheel and two on the camshaft to measure position and speed. The computer
software also has a "virtual flywheel" which takes its speed and position from the real sensors. In normal operation the
computer measures the crankshaft position and speed from one of the real sensors. However should a sensor fail or give a
reading which is dubious the computer checks the signal against the virtual flywheel, and if there is a discrepancy, sound
an alarm for that sensor and switches to the virtual flywheel for engine timing. The engine can continue to operate as long
as one of the four sensors is giving a solid signal.
Unlike their 2 stroke cousins the medium speed engines rely on push rod activation of the inlet and exhaust valves. This
usually means that the timing of the valves is non variable. However, Wartsila have introduced variable inlet valve closing
on their 46F engine which gives the flexibility to advance inlet valve closure at higher loads by up to 30. This reduces
NOx production at high loads.
3 of 4 06-02-2017 22:59
Medium Speed Common Rail Systems http://www.marinediesels.co.uk/members/Camshaftless/med_speed_elec...
4 of 4 06-02-2017 22:59