Common Rail
Common Rail
Common Rail
Diesel fuel injector as installed in a MAN V8 Diesel engine Common rail direct fuel injection is a modern variant of direct fuel injection system for petrol and diesel engines. On diesel engines, it features a high-pressure (over 1,000 bar or 15,000 psi) fuel rail feeding individual solenoid valves, as opposed to low-pressure fuel pump feeding unit injectors (Pumpe/Dse or pump nozzles). Third-generation common rail diesels now feature piezoelectric injectors for increased precision, with fuel pressures up to 3,000 bar or 44,000 psi.[1][2] In gasoline engines, it is used in gasoline direct injection engine technology.
Contents
History
Bosch common rail diesel fuel injector from a Volvo truck engine Robert Bosch GmbH, Delphi Automotive Systems, Denso Corporation, and Siemens VDO (now owned by Continental AG) are the main suppliers of modern common rail systems. The car makers refer to their common rail engines by their own brand names:
Ashok Leyland's CRS Engines (used in U Truck and E4 Busses) BharatBenz's 4d34i Engines (used in 914R and 1214R) BMW's D-engines (also used in the Land Rover Freelander TD4) Chevrolet's VCDi (licensed from VM Motori) Cummins and Scania's XPI (Developed under joint venture) Cummins CCR (Cummins pump with Bosch Injectors) Daimler's CDI (and on Chrysler's Jeep vehicles simply as CRD) Fiat Group's (Fiat, Alfa Romeo and Lancia) JTD (also branded as MultiJet, JTDm, Ecotec CDTi, TiD, TTiD, DDiS, Quadra-Jet) Ford Motor Company's TDCi Duratorq and Powerstroke Honda's i-CTDi & i-DTEC Hyundai & Kia's CRDi IKCO's EFD which is one of the members of the EF family. Supplier TBD Isuzu's iTEQ Komatsu's Tier3, Tier4, 4D95 and higher - HPCR series Diesel engines. Mahindra's CRDe Mazda's MZR-CD & Skyactiv-D (1.4 MZ-CD, 1.6 MZ-CD manufactured by joint venture Ford/PSA Peugeot Citron) and earlier DiTD Mitsubishi's DI-D (recently developed 4N1 engine family uses next generation 200 MPa (2000 bar) injection system)) Nissan's dCi, Infiniti uses dCi engines, but not branded as dCi. Opel's CDTI Proton's SCDi PSA Peugeot Citron's HDI or HDi (1.4HDI, 1.6 HDI, 2.0 HDI, 2.2 HDI and V6 HDI developed under joint venture with Ford) Renault's dCi (joint venture with Nissan) SsangYong's XDi (most of these engines are manufactured by Daimler AG) Subaru's Legacy TD (as of Jan 2008) Tata's DICOR & CR4 Toyota's D-4D & D-Cat
Volkswagen Group: The 6.0 V12 TDI, 4.2 TDI (V8), 2.7 and 3.0 TDI (V6), 1.6, 2.0 TDI (L4) and 1.2 TDI (L3) engines featured on current Seat, Skoda, VW and Audi models use common rail, as opposed to the earlier unit injector engines. Volvo 2.4D and D5 engines (1.6D, 2.0D manufactured by Ford and PSA Peugeot Citroen), Volvo Penta D-serie engines Wrtsil-Sulzer 14RT-flex96-C "largest reciprocating engine in the world" designed by the Finnish manufacturer Wrtsil
Principles
Solenoid or piezoelectric valves make possible fine electronic control over the fuel injection time and quantity, and the higher pressure that the common rail technology makes available provides better fuel atomisation. In order to lower engine noise, the engine's electronic control unit can inject a small amount of diesel just before the main injection event ("pilot" injection), thus reducing its explosiveness and vibration, as well as optimising injection timing and quantity for variations in fuel quality, cold starting and so on. Some advanced common rail fuel systems perform as many as five injections per stroke.[8] Common rail engines require a very short (< 10 seconds) to no heating-up time], depending on ambient temperature, and produce lower engine noise and emissions than older systems. Diesel engines have historically used various forms of fuel injection. Two common types include the unit injection system and the distributor/inline pump systems (See diesel
They were cam driven, and injection pressure was proportional to engine speed. This typically meant that the highest injection pressure could only be achieved at the highest engine speed and the maximum achievable injection pressure decreased as engine speed decreased. This relationship is true with all pumps, even those used on common rail systems; with the unit or distributor systems, however, the injection pressure is tied to the instantaneous pressure of a single pumping event with no accumulator, and thus the relationship is more prominent and troublesome. They were limited in the number and timing of injection events that could be commanded during a single combustion event. While multiple injection events are possible with these older systems, it is much more difficult and costly to achieve. For the typical distributor/inline system, the start of injection occurred at a predetermined pressure (often referred to as: pop pressure) and ended at a predetermined pressure. This characteristic resulted from "dummy" injectors in the cylinder head which opened and closed at pressures determined by the spring preload applied to the plunger in the injector. Once the pressure in the injector reached a pre-determined level, the plunger would lift and injection would start.
In common rail systems, a high-pressure pump stores a reservoir of fuel at high pressure up to and above 2,000 bars (29,000 psi). The term "common rail" refers to the fact that all of the fuel injectors are supplied by a common fuel rail which is nothing more than a pressure accumulator where the fuel is stored at high pressure. This accumulator supplies multiple fuel injectors with high-pressure fuel. This simplifies the purpose of the highpressure pump in that it only has to maintain a commanded pressure at a target (either mechanically or electronically controlled). The fuel injectors are typically ECUcontrolled. When the fuel injectors are electrically activated, a hydraulic valve (consisting of a nozzle and plunger) is mechanically or hydraulically opened and fuel is sprayed into the cylinders at the desired pressure. Since the fuel pressure energy is stored remotely and the injectors are electrically actuated, the injection pressure at the start and end of injection is very near the pressure in the accumulator (rail), thus producing a square injection rate. If the accumulator, pump and plumbing are sized properly, the injection pressure and rate will be the same for each of the multiple injection events