Indirect injection
Encyclopedia
In an internal combustion engine
, the term indirect injection refers to a fuel injection
where fuel is not directly injected into the combustion chamber
. Gasoline engines are usually equipped with indirect injection systems, wherein a fuel injector delivers the fuel at some point before the intake valve
.
An indirect injection diesel engine
delivers fuel into a chamber off the combustion chamber, called a prechamber, where combustion begins and then spreads into the main combustion chamber. The prechamber is carefully designed to ensure adequate mixing of the atomized fuel with the compression-heated air. This has the effect of slowing the rate of combustion, which tends to reduce audible noise
and softens the shock of combustion and produces lower stresses on the engine components. The addition of a prechamber, however, increases heat loss to the cooling system and thereby lowers engine efficiency. The engine requires glow plugs for starting. In an indirect injection system the air moves fast, mixing the fuel and air. This simplifies injector design and allows the use of smaller engines and less tightly toleranced designs which are simpler to manufacture and more reliable. Direct injection, by contrast, uses slow-moving air and fast-moving fuel; both the design and manufacture of the injectors is more difficult. The optimisation of the in-cylinder air flow is much more difficult than designing a prechamber. There is much more integration between the design of the injector and the engine. It is for this reason that car diesel engines were almost all indirect injection until the ready availability of powerful CFD
simulation systems made the adoption of direct injection practical.
After combustion, the products return through the same throat to the main cylinder at much higher velocity. So more heat loss to walls of the passage takes place. This type of chamber finds application in engines in which fuel control and engine stability are more important than fuel economy. These are Ricardo
chambers.
When the injector fires the jet of fuel enters the air cell and ignites. This results in a jet of flame shooting back out of the air cell directly into the jet of fuel still issuing from the injector. The heat and turbulence give excellent fuel vaporisation and mixing properties. Also since the majority of the combustion takes place outside the air cell in the cavity, which communicates directly with the cylinder, there is less heat loss involved in transferring the burning charge into the cylinder.
Air cell injection can be considered as a sort of half way stage between fully indirect and fully direct injection, gaining some of the efficiency advantages of direct injection while retaining the simplicity and ease of development of indirect injection.
Air cell chambers are commonly named Lanova air chambers.
pressure. The first known such injury occurred in 1937 during a diesel engine maintenance operation .
Internal combustion engine
The internal combustion engine is an engine in which the combustion of a fuel occurs with an oxidizer in a combustion chamber. In an internal combustion engine, the expansion of the high-temperature and high -pressure gases produced by combustion apply direct force to some component of the engine...
, the term indirect injection refers to a fuel injection
Fuel injection
Fuel injection is a system for admitting fuel into an internal combustion engine. It has become the primary fuel delivery system used in automotive petrol engines, having almost completely replaced carburetors in the late 1980s....
where fuel is not directly injected into the combustion chamber
Combustion chamber
A combustion chamber is the part of an engine in which fuel is burned.-Internal combustion engine:The hot gases produced by the combustion occupy a far greater volume than the original fuel, thus creating an increase in pressure within the limited volume of the chamber...
. Gasoline engines are usually equipped with indirect injection systems, wherein a fuel injector delivers the fuel at some point before the intake valve
Poppet valve
A poppet valve is a valve consisting of a hole, usually round or oval, and a tapered plug, usually a disk shape on the end of a shaft also called a valve stem. The shaft guides the plug portion by sliding through a valve guide...
.
An indirect injection diesel engine
Diesel engine
A diesel engine is an internal combustion engine that uses the heat of compression to initiate ignition to burn the fuel, which is injected into the combustion chamber...
delivers fuel into a chamber off the combustion chamber, called a prechamber, where combustion begins and then spreads into the main combustion chamber. The prechamber is carefully designed to ensure adequate mixing of the atomized fuel with the compression-heated air. This has the effect of slowing the rate of combustion, which tends to reduce audible noise
Noise
In common use, the word noise means any unwanted sound. In both analog and digital electronics, noise is random unwanted perturbation to a wanted signal; it is called noise as a generalisation of the acoustic noise heard when listening to a weak radio transmission with significant electrical noise...
and softens the shock of combustion and produces lower stresses on the engine components. The addition of a prechamber, however, increases heat loss to the cooling system and thereby lowers engine efficiency. The engine requires glow plugs for starting. In an indirect injection system the air moves fast, mixing the fuel and air. This simplifies injector design and allows the use of smaller engines and less tightly toleranced designs which are simpler to manufacture and more reliable. Direct injection, by contrast, uses slow-moving air and fast-moving fuel; both the design and manufacture of the injectors is more difficult. The optimisation of the in-cylinder air flow is much more difficult than designing a prechamber. There is much more integration between the design of the injector and the engine. It is for this reason that car diesel engines were almost all indirect injection until the ready availability of powerful CFD
Computational fluid dynamics
Computational fluid dynamics, usually abbreviated as CFD, is a branch of fluid mechanics that uses numerical methods and algorithms to solve and analyze problems that involve fluid flows. Computers are used to perform the calculations required to simulate the interaction of liquids and gases with...
simulation systems made the adoption of direct injection practical.
Swirl chamber
It consists of a spherical chamber located in the cylinder head and separated from the engine cylinder by a tangential throat. About 50% of the air enters the swirl chamber during the compression stroke of the engine, producing a swirl.After combustion, the products return through the same throat to the main cylinder at much higher velocity. So more heat loss to walls of the passage takes place. This type of chamber finds application in engines in which fuel control and engine stability are more important than fuel economy. These are Ricardo
Harry Ricardo
Sir Harry Ricardo was one of the foremost engine designers and researchers in the early years of the development of the internal combustion engine....
chambers.
Precombustion chamber
This chamber is located at the cylinder head and is connected to the engine cylinder by small holes. It occupies 40% of the total cylinder volume. During the compression stroke, air from the main cylinder enters the precombustion chamber. At this moment, fuel is injected into the precombustion chamber and combustion begins. Pressure increases and the fuel droplets are forced through the small holes into the main cylinder, resulting in a very good mix of the fuel and air. The bulk of the combustion actually takes place in the main cylinder. This type of combustion chamber has multi-fuel capability because the temperature of the prechamber vaporizes the fuel before the main combustion event occurs.Air cell chamber
The air cell is a small cylindrical chamber with a hole in one end. It is mounted more or less coaxially with the injector, said axis being parallel to the piston crown, with the injector firing across a small cavity which is open to the cylinder into the hole in the end of the air cell. The air cell is mounted so as to minimise thermal contact with the mass of the head. A pintle injector with a narrow spray pattern is used. At TDC the majority of the charge mass is contained in the cavity and air cell.When the injector fires the jet of fuel enters the air cell and ignites. This results in a jet of flame shooting back out of the air cell directly into the jet of fuel still issuing from the injector. The heat and turbulence give excellent fuel vaporisation and mixing properties. Also since the majority of the combustion takes place outside the air cell in the cavity, which communicates directly with the cylinder, there is less heat loss involved in transferring the burning charge into the cylinder.
Air cell injection can be considered as a sort of half way stage between fully indirect and fully direct injection, gaining some of the efficiency advantages of direct injection while retaining the simplicity and ease of development of indirect injection.
Air cell chambers are commonly named Lanova air chambers.
Advantages of indirect injection combustion chambers
- Smaller diesels can be produced.
- The injection pressure required is low, so the injector is cheaper to produce.
- The injection direction is of less importance.
- Indirect injection is much simpler to design and manufacture; less injector development is required and the injection pressures are low (1500 psi versus 5000 psi and higher for direct injection)
- The lower stresses that indirect injection imposes on internal components mean that it is possible to produce petrol and indirect injection diesel versions of the same basic engine. At best such types differ only in the cylinder head and the need to fit a distributorDistributorA distributor is a device in the ignition system of an internal combustion engine that routes high voltage from the ignition coil to the spark plugs in the correct firing order. The first reliable battery operated ignition was developed by Dayton Engineering Laboratories Co. and introduced in the...
and spark plugSpark plugA spark plug is an electrical device that fits into the cylinder head of some internal combustion engines and ignites compressed fuels such as aerosol, gasoline, ethanol, and liquefied petroleum gas by means of an electric spark.Spark plugs have an insulated central electrode which is connected by...
s in the petrol version whilst fitting an injection pumpInjection pumpAn Injection Pump is the device that pumps fuel into the cylinders of a diesel engine or less typically, a gasoline engine. Traditionally, the pump is driven indirectly from the crankshaft by gears, chains or a toothed belt that also drives the camshaft on overhead-cam engines . It rotates at half...
and injectors to the diesel. Examples include the BMC A-SeriesBMC A-Series engineAustin Motor Company's small straight-4 automobile engine, the A-Series, is one of the most common in the world. Launched in 1951 with the Austin A30, production lasted until 2000 in the Mini. It used a cast-iron block and cylinder head, and a steel crankshaft with 3 main bearings...
and B-SeriesBMC B-Series engineThe BMC B-series was a straight-4 internal combustion engine family, mostly used in motor cars, created by British company Austin Motor Company. The pre-cursor of the "B" series engine was a 1200 cc OHV engine which was used in the 1947 Austin A40 Devon. This A40 Devon engine was based on a...
engines and the Land RoverLand RoverLand Rover is a British car manufacturer with its headquarters in Gaydon, Warwickshire, United Kingdom which specialises in four-wheel-drive vehicles. It is owned by the Indian company Tata Motors, forming part of their Jaguar Land Rover group...
2.25/2.5-litreLitrepic|200px|right|thumb|One litre is equivalent to this cubeEach side is 10 cm1 litre water = 1 kilogram water The litre is a metric system unit of volume equal to 1 cubic decimetre , to 1,000 cubic centimetres , and to 1/1,000 cubic metre...
4-cylinder types. Such designs allow petrol and diesel versions of the same vehicle to be built with minimal design changes between them. - Higher engine speeds can be reached, since burning continues in the prechamber. The Mercedes-Benz type prechamber is able to achieve over 6000rpm in a turbocharged engine.
- Indirect injection is superior for running on thicker vegetable oil fuel, due to lower pressure injection, a longer burn time and increased swirl ensuring more complete combustion.
Disadvantages
- Specific fuel consumptionSpecific fuel consumptionThrust specific fuel consumption or sometimes simply specific fuel consumption, SFC, is an engineering term that is used to describe the fuel efficiency of an engine design with respect to thrust output...
is high because of heat loss due to large exposed areas and pressure loss due to air motion through the throats. - Glowplugs are needed for a cold engine start.
- Because the heat and pressure of combustion is applied to one specific point on the pistonPistonA piston is a component of reciprocating engines, reciprocating pumps, gas compressors and pneumatic cylinders, among other similar mechanisms. It is the moving component that is contained by a cylinder and is made gas-tight by piston rings. In an engine, its purpose is to transfer force from...
as it exits the precombustion chamber or swirl chamber, such engines are less suited to high specific powerSpecific powerIn physics and engineering, surface power density or sometimes simply specific power is power per unit area.-Applications:* The intensity of electromagnetic radiation can be expressed in W/m2...
outputs (such as turbochargingTurbochargerA turbocharger, or turbo , from the Greek "τύρβη" is a centrifugal compressor powered by a turbine that is driven by an engine's exhaust gases. Its benefit lies with the compressor increasing the mass of air entering the engine , thereby resulting in greater performance...
or tuning) than direct injection diesels. The increased temperature and pressure on one part of the pistonPistonA piston is a component of reciprocating engines, reciprocating pumps, gas compressors and pneumatic cylinders, among other similar mechanisms. It is the moving component that is contained by a cylinder and is made gas-tight by piston rings. In an engine, its purpose is to transfer force from...
crown causes uneven expansion which can lead to cracking, distortion or other damage.
Maintenance hazards
Fuel injection introduces potential hazards in engine maintenance due to the high fuel pressures used. Residual pressure can remain in the fuel lines long after an injection-equipped engine has been shut down. This residual pressure must be relieved, and if it is done so by external bleed-off, the fuel must be safely contained. If a high-pressure diesel fuel injector is removed from its seat and operated in open air, there is a risk to the operator of injury by hypodermic jet-injection, even with only 100 psiPounds per square inch
The pound per square inch or, more accurately, pound-force per square inch is a unit of pressure or of stress based on avoirdupois units...
pressure. The first known such injury occurred in 1937 during a diesel engine maintenance operation .