Parametric Study of Injection Rates With Solenoid Injectors in an Injection Quantity and Rate Measuring Device

The rate at which fuel is injected into the cylinder of a direct injection Diesel engine has significant implications for the ensuing mixture formation and combustion processes. Advances in fuel injector technology enable a variety of advanced injection strategies, particularly very closely coupled injection events. In this work, a Moehwald HDA injection quantity and rate measuring unit is used to investigate the injection rates obtained with a pre-production solenoid injector with a fast acting, pressure-balanced control valve using a blend of n-hexadecane and heptamethylnonane (DPRF58). The effects of digital signal filtering on the rate shape and injected mass are investigated for a single injection. Additionally, the effects of physical parameters such as fuel and measurement chamber temperature, axial clamping force on the injector, high pressure line length, and solenoid current pull up time on the rate shape are investigated. The primary purpose of these simple parameter variations is to establish whether or not they have an impact on the measured injection rate traces and/or total measured injected masses. At each dwell time, the rates of injection are compared between the three injectors tested. These results show that these pre-production injectors can operate with very short dwell times while the injection rate curves indicate distinct pilot and main injection events and an influence of dwell on the rate shape of the main injection. Testing with PRF, a blend of n-heptane and isooctane, shows that while rates of injection are comparable to those obtained with the DPRF for a single injection, they are dramatically different for multiple injections. This has significant implications for the optical diagnostic techniques that may be employed to study the effects of multiple injections on the mixture formation process.