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Common Rail and Camshaftless Engines
Medium Speed Common Rail Systems

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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.

The Wartsila Common Rail Fuel System

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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.

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Drawing 2 Injection Signal from Electronic Control System

As an electrical signal moves the shuttle valve downwards high pressure fuel flows to the injector needle valve. High
pressure fuel also flows to the the piston at the top of the injector which holds the needle valve closed on its seat.

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

Crankshaft Position Sensor

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.

Variable Inlet Valve Closing

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.

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The device consists of two hydraulic cylinders

connected by two passages, the flow through one of
these passages being controlled by a valve, and the
other by the position of the hydraulic piston driven by
the cam follower.

When the follower moves up the slope of the cam the

oil in the lower cylinder moves to the upper cylinder
displacing the push rod piston and opening the valves.
When the follower is on the peak of the cam, the
hydraulic piston is covering the passage between the
cylinders.

When the VIC control valve is open, the pushrod

follows the follower immediately, which results in
early valve closure. When the control valve is closed,
the downward movement of the pushrod is delayed
until the piston actuated by the follower reveals the
passage between the two cylinders.

Make up of oil is from the main engine Lub Oil supply

via a non return valve. Build up of air is prevented by
an air release in the push rod hydraulic cylinder.

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