Investigation on the fuel injection quantity fluctuation of a common-rail fuel injection system using response surface methodology

Abstract

Variations in the parameters affect the injection characteristics of a common-rail injection system and leads to fluctuation in the fuel injection quantity. This paper is aimed at combining the numerical modelling and design of experiments to investigate the significant effects of the interactions between the common-rail injector parameters on the fluctuation in the fuel injection quantity using response surface methodology. A numerical model of a common-rail injector was developed. The model was validated by comparing simulation results with experimental measurements, which showed that it can accurately predict the fuel injection quantity of the system. The design of experiments was performed using a two-level five-factor D-optimal design. The factors studied were the pre-tension of the control valve spring, the diameter of the outlet orifice, the diameter of the inlet orifice, the needle lift and the diameter of the nozzle holes. A quadratic response surface model was suggested by means of partial least-squares regression analysis. The distribution of the standardized residuals, the relation between the predicted fluctuation and the observed fluctuation in the fuel injection quantity, the coefficient R² of determination and the adjusted coefficient $R_{\mathrm{adj}}^2$ of determination for the response surface model were analysed, which demonstrated the significance of the model. Analysis of the F value and the p value for the model terms at the 95% confidence level revealed that the interactions between the control valve spring pre-tension and the nozzle hole diameter, between the outlet orifice diameter and the nozzle hole diameter, between the inlet orifice diameter and the nozzle hole diameter and between the needle lift and the nozzle hole diameter had significant effects on the fluctuation in the fuel injection quantity of the system. Furthermore, the significant effects of the interactions between these parameters were analysed in detail.