Parallel Flow Control Valves for Common Rail Fuel Injection
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Solution Overview
Problem
Common rail fuel injection systems face challenges with wear and erosive phenomena in flow control valves, especially when operating outside their designed flow rate range, leading to increased costs and reduced accuracy in large high-pressure pump applications.
Innovation Solution
The implementation of at least two individually controllable flow control valves connected in parallel, with fluid receivers on both sides to mitigate pressure oscillations and ensure operation within an optimal flow rate range, reducing wear and allowing for precise control and cost-effective component design.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If a single flow control valve is designed for high flow rates to match large high-pressure pumps, then the pump capacity is satisfied, but the valve experiences increased wear and erosive phenomena while operating outside its optimal flow rate range
Solution Approach 1:
The single flow control valve is divided into multiple flow control valves (at least two) that operate in parallel. Each valve handles a portion of the total fuel flow, allowing them to operate within their optimal flow rate ranges even when the total system flow rate is high. This segmentation reduces wear and erosive phenomena on each individual valve while maintaining the required total fuel flow capacity for large high-pressure pumps
2Productivity
If a single flow control valve is designed for high flow rates, then the pump capacity is satisfied, but the accuracy of flow rate control deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
By dividing the flow control function into multiple valves, each valve operates at a lower, more precise flow rate range. This improves the accuracy of flow rate control for each valve, and through coordinated control of multiple valves, the system achieves both high total flow capacity and precise flow rate regulation
3Adaptability or versatility
If flow control valves operate outside their determined flow rate range in partial flow conditions, then system flexibility is improved, but wear and erosive phenomena increase
Solution Approach 1:
Multiple flow control valves allow the system to maintain flexibility in operating ranges while keeping each valve within its optimal flow rate range. By coordinating the operation of multiple valves, the system can adapt to different fuel flow demands without subjecting individual valves to harmful partial flow conditions
Solution Approach 2:
The system dynamically adjusts the number and opening degree of active flow control valves based on the required total fuel flow rate. This dynamic configuration allows the system to maintain adaptability across different operating conditions while ensuring each active valve operates within its optimal range, avoiding wear and erosion
Data Source
Figure 1
AI summary
The common rail fuel injection system for a piston engine (1) comprises a fuel rail (9), at least one fuel injector (3) connected to the fuel rail (9), a first fluid receiver (6), a second fluid receiver (7), at least one low-pressure pump (5) for supplying fuel into the first fluid receiver (6), at least one high-pressure pump (10) for receiving fuel from the second fluid receiver (7) and for supplying the fuel into the fuel rail (9), and at least two flow control valves (8a, 8b, 8c) connected in parallel. Each of the flow control valves (8a, 8b, 8c) is individually controllable and connected to the first fluid receiver (6) on the upstream side and to the second fluid receiver (7) on the downstream side.