HANDLING OF FUEL OILS

Fuel-oil Injection.

Methods - There exist two basic methods of fuel injection in compression-ignition oil engines - air
injection and airless injection. The latter method is known under different names, such as mechanical,
solid, or hydraulic injection.

Airless-injection methods can be subdivided into four groups: A. constant pressure, or common-rail
system, B. jerk-pump system, C. distributor system, D. individual-pump system in connection with a
precombustion chamber.

The first two systems use high injection pressures to atomize the fuel; in the last two systems, some
designs use high and some low injection pressures. In addition to the enumerated main types there
exist a number of intermediate types having some characteristic of one and some of another system.

Air injection was first successfully developed by Rudolf Diesel. It requires a compression pressure of
about 500 to 525 psi and air injection pressure of about 1000 psi. Its advantages are very god
atomization and distribution of the fuel, resulting in comparatively high mean effective pressures; its
disadvantages are complication of the engine by a multistage air compressor, which often is a source
of trouble and in any event requires expert attention and at the same time lowers the mechanical
efficiency of the engine. The latest achievements in airless-injection engines seem to spell doom for
the air-injection engines, and the number of manufacturers of this type decreases with every year.

Constant-pressure injection, also called Vickers, or common-rail, or accumulator system, was

developed by the Vickers Company in England and was the first satisfactory mechanical-injection
system. It consists of a system of pipes, which connect the high-pressure oil pump or pumps with the
fuel or spray nozzle in each cylinder. A sufficient accumulator action maintaining a more or less
constant pressure in the system is obtained by the compressibility of the fuel in the pipes and other
parts such as the fuel strainer and pressure-relief-valve body. The fuel admitted into the cylinders by
lifting the fuel valve, called also fuel needle on account of its shape, by a cam mechanism driven from
the engine crankshaft.

The compression pressure of the air charge is lower than in air-injection Diesel engines, usually
between 370 and 420 psi. The ignition pressure goes up to 550 to 600 psi, partially because it is
difficult to obtain a really constant-pressure combustion with the mechanical injection of the fuel,
partially because the increase of the maximum pressure gives an increase of the thermal efficiency.
Fuel-injection range from 3200 to 5000 psi an in some engines are as low as 1700 psi.

Jerk-pump injection differs from the constant-pressure injection in both design and operation of the
pumps and fuel injectors. Each injector has a separate pump, and the injector becomes a spring-
loaded, hydraulically operated automatic valve; no mechanism is required to operate it. The system
lends itself equally well for all cylinder sizes and engine speeds. However, for very small engines it is
rather expensive.
Distributor System – In this system the fuel oil is supplied, through rotating distributors, to individual
metering pumps and from there to the engine cylinders. Of the several distributor systems
encountered in American engines, that of the Cummins engines is probably the best known one.

Precombustion Chambers – The compression space is subdivided into two parts, one formed by the
space between the piston top and the cylinder head and the other formed by a special recess in the
cylinder head and connected with the main chamber by a more or less restricted passage. The fuel is
injected into the precombustion chamber sometimes during the compression stroke, the earlier the
smaller the passage to the precombustion chamber. Thus the fuel is given time to evaporate before it
ignites in the precombustion chamber. On account of the insufficient amount of air, only partial
combustion occurs, but it is sufficient to raise the pressure and to throw out the rest of the fuel into
the main chamber, where combustion is completed.

The oil-injection pressure may be considerably lower, 1000 to 1500 psi. However, some engines use
high-pressure injection.

The advantages of this system are: the timing of injection does not need to be so exact; the fuel
charge is given a longer time element to become ready for combustion, and efficient turbulence is
created by the precombustion discharge. All these features are very helpful in variable and high speed
engines as used in automobiles, trucks, and tractors. The disadvantages are: not as good control of the
combustion and difficulty in obtaining high mean effective pressures.

Hot-surface-ignition engines have an injection system similar to that of precombustion-chamber

engines but use still lower injection pressures.z

Governing – In most oil engines the amount of fuel injected is regulated by the pump, whose action is
under the control of the governor.

In mechanical-injection constant-pressure engines the governor acts upon the fuel-valve lift
mechanism by changing the duration and height of the lift of the fuel needle by means of the fuel-
control wedge, which increases or decreases the lost motion of the push rod.

Thus the problem of governor control is really a problem of metering the fuel.

Requirements – The main requirements which is a fuel-injection system must fulfill are:

1. Accurate metering of small amounts of fuel oil.

2. Proper timing of the fuel injection.
3. Control of the rate of fuel injection.
4. Atomization of the fuel in accordance with the type of the combustion chamber used.
5. Good distribution of the fuel in the combustion space.
 Fuel per Cycle – The amount of oil injected per cycle depends upon the piston displacement and
load factor. To obtain a complete combustion at full load the air supply must be about 50 per cent
greater than the theoretical amount and sometimes even more. In engines with high-turbulence
combustion chamber, the excess air may be reduced down to about 30 per cent. If more fuel is
injected than can be burned completely, the specific fuel consumption and cost of power goes up.
If less fuel is injected, the mean effective pressure decreases and a smaller power will be
developed per cubic foot of displacement, again increasing the cost of power. The proper amount
of fuel giving the lowest cost of power for a given engine must be determined by testing.

If W h is the fuel consumption in pounds per horsepower-hour, N is the number of

horesepowers per combustion space, i the number of strokes per cycle, and n designates
revolutions per minute, then the weight of fuel per cycle

W h=W h∋¿ 120 n

And the volume in cubic inches is

Wc W
V c =1728 =27.7 c
62.4 γ γ
Where γ is the specific gravity of the fuel oil, referred to water.

Volumetric efficiency of a pump depends upon:

a. Clearance between the pump plunger and barrel

b. Injection pressure
c. Number of strokes per minute
d. Viscosity of the fuel
e. Pressure of the fuel supplied to the pump

The most important factor is the clearance, then come the injection pressure and speed. The influence
of the viscosity is not very important, with present precision-manufactured pumps with clearances not
greater than 0.0001 in. An increase of the fuel supply pressure from 1.5 psig to 45 psi increases of 60
SSU and over and slightly more for fuels of 35 to 60 SSU. In general, with low injection pressures, 1500
to 1700 psi, and a normal clearance, the volumetric efficiency is close to 95 per cent and drops with
the injection pressure down to about 85 per cent at 4250 psi. With very low fuel viscosity, the
volumetric efficiency may drop down to 75 per cent.