Fuel Injection in the CI Engine

The pressure and temperature at the end of

the compression stroke – 28 to 70 bar and
520ºC to 720ºC.

The injection system in CI engine has to

perform the important duty of initiating and
controlling the combustion process
 Objectives of the Injection System
1. Meter the appropriate quantity of fuel, as demanded by the
speed of, and the load on, the engine at the given time.

2. Distribute the metered fuel equally among cylinders in a multi-

cylinder engine.

3. Inject the fuel at the correct time (with respect to crank angle)
in the cycle.

4. Inject the fuel at the correct rate (per unit time or crank angle
degree).

5. Inject the fuel with the correct spray pattern and sufficient
atomization as demanded by the design of the combustion
chamber, to provide proper penetration also.

6. Begin and end injection sharply without dribbling or after

injection.
To accomplish these objectives, a number of functional elements are
required. These constitute together, the fuel injection system of
the engine. These elements are as follows.

1. Pumping elements to transfer the fuel from the tank to the

cylinder, along with the associate piping and hardware.

2. Metering elements to measure and supply the fuel at the rate as

desired by the speed and load conditions .

3. Metering controls to adjust the rate of the metering elements for

changes in load and speed of the engine.

4. Distributing elements to divide the metered fuel equally among

the cylinders in a multi cylinder engine.

5. Timing controls to adjust the start and stop of injection.

6. Mixing elements to atomize and distribute the fuel within the
combustion chamber
 Function of fuel injection equipment
The function of fuel injection equipment is to supply the engine
with fuel in qualities exactly metered in proportion to the power
required and timed with utmost accuracy, so that the engine will
deliver that power within the limits prescribed for fuel
consumption, exhaust smoke, noise and exhaust emissions.

The fuel must be injected through suitable nozzles at pressures

high enough to cause the required degree of atomization in the
combustion chamber and to ensure that it mixes with sufficient
air for complete combustion in the cycle time available.

In multi cylinder engines the periods of injection, the timing and the
delivered quantity must be accurately metered to ensure an even
balance between the cylinders.
 Fuel Injection Systems
There are two main classifications for fuel-injection systems,
namely
1. air injection which had become obsolete but now some
interest has been shown by researchers (however very high
pressure is required for air) and
2. solid (or airless) injection systems.
 Air Injection system
Advantages
• Good atomization
• Heavy and viscous fuels can be used
• Requirement of small pressure injection pump
Disadvantages
• It requires a high pressure multistage compressor
• Separate mechanical linkage required to time the opeartion of
fuel valve
• Bulky engine size – reduce the BP
The airless, mechanical, or solid injection
1. Individual pump system: This consists of a separate metering
and compression pump for each cylinder.
• It requires heavy valve gears
• The quantity and the time of injection is controlled at the
pump itself
2. Distribution system: This consists of a single pump for
compressing the fuel (which may also meter), plus a delivery
device for distributing the fuel to the cylinders (which may also
meter).
• The fuel pump after metering the required amount of fuel supplies it
to rotating distributor at correct time for supply to each cylinder
3. Common rail system: A single pump for compressing the fuel,
plus a metering element for each cylinder.
• Noise and driving mechanism can be reduced by spreading the
pumping action over a long period
• Metering and timing element is connected to an automatic injector
4. Unit Injector system : A pump and the injector nozzle are
combined in one housing
• It requires push rod and rocker arm to operate the unit injector
 Fuel delivery output control
• The plunger stroke is controlled by the cam lobe profile and is always
constant
• Effective stroke of the plunger is varied by position of the plunger
helical groove spill groove elative to the fixed barrel spill port.
• At half load, the helical groove must be made to aligned with the spill
port earlier in the plunger
• At full load, the helical groove must be aligned with the spill port later
in the plunger stroke.
Cold start retarding groove
• By grinding a starting groove on the top of the plunger on one side.
• When starting the engine from cold, the control rod opening is moved
to the excess fuel position.
• To cut a slot across the crown of the plunger at a definite angle to the
helix
• The plunger and barrel have a
lapped working clearance of
between 3 to 5 μm.
• Fuel output from an inline injection
pump with a constant plunger
stroke varies directly with the
control rod opening and upon the
diameter of the pumping plunger

• Fuel delivery with worn plungers is

much more prominent at low speed
than at high speed
• Leakage time factor is greater
• A fuel injection pump tends to
produce an increase in fuel
discharge per stroke with rising
speed.
• At low pump speed, there is
more time for fuel leakage
between the barrel and plunger
to take place.
• Air-fuel ratio become richer at
higher speed
 Fuel Injectors
• The domed nozzle nose contain 1 to 10 discharge holes of 0.2 to 0.45
mm diameter.
The number & diameter of the discharge holes depends upon
• The engine cylinder cubic capacity
• The intensity of air swirl
• The speed of the engine
• The amount of mechanical squish
• The magnitude of injection pressure
Types of nozzle
• Single hole nozzle
• Multi hole nozzle
• Pintle nozzle
• Pintaux nozzle
 
m f  CD An 2  f p


m f  CD An 2  f p
360 N
Spray Structure
Multi hole nozzle
Short term
• To speed up the mixing
process
• Used in DI slow speed large
cylinder diesel engines
Long term
• It can be placed between the inlet
ad exhaust valve heads without
restricting the cooling passages
• Used in medium and high speed
DI engines
Pintle nozzle
• Spary cone angle is 60º
• No dribbling
• Self cleaning action
• Incorporated in indirect
injection swirl and
precombustion chambers
Pintaux nozzle
• For starting and idling speed
condition
• Normal operating condition
 Quantity of Fuel and the Size of
Nozzle Orifice
The quantity of fuel injected per cycle is dependent
on the power output of the engine. The size of
droplets depend on the velocity which should be
of the order of 400 m/s. As mentioned earlier,
this velocity is given by
V f  C d 2 gh
where h is the pressure difference between
injection and cylinder pressures, measured in
meters of fuel column.
 The volume of fuel injected per second, Q, is given by
.
 2    60   N i 
Q   d  V f    
4   360 N   60 

where d is the diameter of one orifice in m,

Ni is the number of injections per minute, = N/2
for a 4-stroke engine,
N is the engine speed in rev/min,
θ is the duration of injection in crank angle
degrees,
Q is expressed usually in mm3/degree crank
angle/liter cylinder displacement volume