Professional Documents
Culture Documents
A Development of A High Pressure H2 Gas Injector With High Response by Using Common-Rail Injection System For Direct Injection H2 Fuelled Engines
A Development of A High Pressure H2 Gas Injector With High Response by Using Common-Rail Injection System For Direct Injection H2 Fuelled Engines
ABSTRACT:
The authors have developed a new generation hydrogen gas injector which may overcome the problems
brought about by the previous injectors activated hydraulically. The hydrogen gas injector is activated
electro-hydraulically by working fluid at 100 MPa fed by the common rail system developed for diesel
engines to open the needle valve of the injector. And the hydrogen gas at high pressure of 20 MPa in the
injector is directly injected into the combustion chamber.
An experiment was carried out concerning the injection flow rates affected by the injection crankangle at two
engine speeds such as 1000 and 3000 rpm, the temperature and pressure of the working fluid to obtain the
characteristics of the injector.
1. Introduction
The development of hydrogen gas injectors has been being carried out for direct injection hydrogen fueled
engines in Musashi Institute of Technology for many years[1], [2], [3], [4], [5]. Because it has been found
theoretically that the direct injection of hydrogen fuel generates about 1.2 times as much output power as
that of a gasoline engine and that the direct injection also brings about greater thermal efficiency than that of
a hydrogen engine with external mixture formation owing to greater cooling loss than that by hydrogen fueled
engines with direct injection.
The previous hydrogen gas injectors were activated mechanically or hydraulically by working fluid at 20 ∼
30 MPa fed by a diesel plunger pump to open the poppet or needle valves of the injectors. And the
hydrogen gas at high pressure such as 6 ∼ 10 MPa in the injectors was directly injected into the combustion
chambers. It was found experimentally that the previous injectors needed greater injection duration in
crankangle as the engine was operated at higher engine speed. As a result, the thermal efficiency got worse
as the engine speed became greater. It is necessary to have the injector activate in as small crankangle as
possible to increase the thermal efficiency even at greater engine speed. The required injection crankangle
is smaller than 30 deg. during which the piston of the engine seldom moves around the top-dead-center.
And the direct injection hydrogen fuelled engine is subject to NOx emission even in totally lean mixture op-
eration, namely low load, because of the heterogeneous combustion.
It has been found recently that the de-NOx catalyst developed for fossil-fuel lean mixture engines was effec-
tive also in hydrogen-fuelled engines when hydrogen gas was injected into the exhaust manifold upstream of
the de-NOx catalyst [6].
It is very important to develop an injector with quick response activation by using the common-rail system
developed for diesel engines where the pressure of the working fluid is large enough and the system works
electro-hydraulically so that a swift and multi-injection control might be available.
1/7
WHEC 16 / 13-16 June 2006 –Lyon France
253 mm
shows the overall photograph of the injector developed.
The diameter of the valve seat was 4 mm. The tip angle
of the needle valve was 90 degrees. The electric magnet
servo-valve, the flow control upper and lower plates and
the fixtures were removed from the original common-rail Pushing Rod
diesel injector to assemble the parts into this new Lift Sensor
common-rail type hydrogen gas injector. The others were (Max. Lift:0.3 mm)
newly designed for hydrogen gas injection at the design
pressure of 30 MPa at the maximum and the design
Needle Valve
pressure of the working fluid was 200 MPa at the
maximum. A rubber O-ring and a doughnut-shape resin
sheet made of Teflon were used to seal between the
φ4
hydrogen gas and the working fluid. A lift sensor (A φ12
Special Model; Applied Electronics Corp.) was embedded
in the injector as shown in Fig. 1 to measure the Fig. 1 Cross-Section View of Common-Rail
movement of the needle valve. Type High Pressure Injector
The common-rail type high pressure hydrogen gas
injector works as follows. Receptacles
The command signal has the injector driver generate a large
driving electric current. The electric magnet servo-valve moves WF Supply Inlet WF Drain
up to open the outlet of the working fluid pressurized in the flow (100Map)
control upper and lower plates. The pressure falls down swiftly
and the pushing rod moves up together with the needle valve
which is forced to move upward by the hydrogen injection
pressure. As a result, the needle valve opens and the hydrogen
at the pressure of 20 MPa is injected out. Once the command
253 mm
signal and the electric current are off, the electric magnet servo- 約φ64
valve moves down to close the outlet of the working fluid H2 Supply Inlet
(20Map)
resulting in building up the pressure in the flow control upper
and lower plates. Consequently the pushing rod moves down
while pushing the needle valve to the valve seat. In the end, the
hydrogen injection stops. Injector Body
2/7
WHEC 16 / 13-16 June 2006 –Lyon France
Oscilloscope
0
1.10 Lift
of the hydrogen gas were measured by a x
Rubber O-Ring
H
pressure sensor and thermocouple Leading
1.05 Wire
2
3/7
WHEC 16 / 13-16 June 2006 –Lyon France
Start End
10° 10°
16.4° 24.2°
10° 1.53° 4.47°
15° 15°
21.4° 32.1°
4.77°
15° 1.52°
20° 20°
26.1° 36.2°
1.53° 4.60°
20°
Fig. 5 Display of Comand Signal, Electric Current and Needle Valve Lift
4/7
WHEC 16 / 13-16 June 2006 –Lyon France
one result, the uppermost is the command 1000 Maximum Needle Valve Lift:0.3mm
Working Fluid Pressure:100MPa
Working Fluid temperature:50~53℃
signal. The second one is the electric
current generated by the injector driver to 800
1000rpm
the electric magnet which controls the
servo-valve. And the last one is the lift of 600
the needle valve. It is found that the delay 320Nml (Vs=1liter,η =0.8
v
Stoihiometric Mixture)
time crankangles were almost same even 400
while changing the command signal
duration crankangle in the same injection 200
3000rpm
frequency such as 1000 rpm or 3000 rpm.
However, every actual injection duration in 0
0.0 10.0 20.0 30.0 40.0 50.0
crankangle is larger than that of the
command signal. Actual Injection Duration θing (deg. C.A)
Figure 6 shows the relationship between Fig. 7 Hydrogen Quantity per injection Qinj vs
the command signal duration in crankangle Actual Injection Duration
and the actual injection duration measured
with the output of the lift sensor. It is found that the actual injection durations measured are longer than the
command signal ones in both the cases of 1000 rpm and 3000 rpm. Moreover, the actual durations in case
of 3000 rmp are longer than those of 1000 rpm. The reason can be understood from the difference in the
time history of the lift. In case of 1000 rpm, almost results shows that the lift reached the uppermost value of
0.23 mm. On the other hand, in case of 3000 rpm, the real time of the command signal duration was very
short, a third of that in case of 1000 rpm, so that the large portion of the time was used almost for the time in
lifting and pushing down the needle valve. From the mechanical character of the common-rail, even if the
real time was the same as in the case of 1000 rpm, the injection duration in crankangle was longer because
an engine in case of 3000 rpm makes three times as many revolutions as in case of 1000 rpm. It means that
it is necessary to measure the lift of the needle valve in order to determine the opening and closing timings of
the needle valve.
5/7
WHEC 16 / 13-16 June 2006 –Lyon France
H2 Quantity
per Injection
300
Qinj (Nml)
3.3 Infuluence of Working Fluid Pressure
250
In practice, the pressure of the working fluid is generated
by the high pressure pump whose driving power is 200
provided by the engine power through the engine driving
shaft. It is very clear that the thermal efficiency decreases 150
as the pressure gets greater. Therefore, a low pressure of 5
Leaked H2 Gas
the working fluid is preferable. An experimental study was 4
carried out to understand the influence of the pressure of 3
L(%)
the working fluid on the hydrogen quantity per injection Qinj, 2
the static leakage flow rate through the needle valve Ls 1
0
and the actual injection duration Δθinj in case of 3000 40
rpm (25 Hz) with the maximum lift set to be 0.3 mm, the
Δθinj (deg.)
35
Actual Injection
injection pressure of 20 MPa and the working fluid
Duration
temperature of 50 –53 ℃ adjusted. 30
Figure 8 shows the influence of the working fluid pressure 25
on the hydrogen quantity per injection Qinj, the static 20
leakage flow rate through the needle valve Ls and the 70 80 90 100 110 120 130
actual injection duration Δθinj in case of 3000 rpm (25 Pressure of Working Fluid PWF (MPa)
Hz). The static leakage quantity L in the Fig. 8 was Fig. 8 Influence of Working Fluid Pressure
determined by multiplying the static
leakage flow rate Ls by the time needed for 800
H2 Quantity per Injection Qinj (Nml)
4. Summary
The followings are the summary of this study though the injector was not installed in engines in actual firing
operations.
6/7
WHEC 16 / 13-16 June 2006 –Lyon France
(1) The common-rail system developed for diesel engines is functionally applicable to hydrogen gas
injectors.
(2) It is found that the actual injection needs longer duration time than the command signal duration one as
the injection frequency increases, namely the engine speed increases. To shorten the duration time at
high injection frequency, much further effort is required to study the flow control in the upper and lower
plates, weight-savings in the moving parts, the diameter of the pushing rod and the lubrication.
(3) The characteristics of the lift sensor should be improved by simplifying the configurations of the crown of
the needle valve.
(4) The static leakage was small enough so that the amount might not disturb the combustion brought about
by the direct injection.
(5) It is found in this experimental study that the maximum lift of 0.3 mm was not enough to obtain the
amount of the stoichiometric hydrogen flow of 320 Nml/injection at the injection frequency of 25 Hz,
namely 3000 rpm. Further study should be done concerning the influence of the maximum lift.
(6) The influence of the working fluid pressure on the hydrogen quantity per injection, the static leakage and
the injection duration time should be studied coupled with engine control systems.
(7) The influence of the working fluid temperature was small unexpectedly.
5. Acknowledgements
The authors would like to express their appreciation to Mr. Takao Fukuma, Toyota Motor Corp., Mr. Hironori
Iwamoto, Applied Electronics Corp., Mr. Takeshi Tanaka, Japan Air Gases Ltd., Mr. Masayoshi Iwamoto,
Iwamoto Ltd., Mr. Masayoshi Usui, Mr. Teruhisa Takahashi, Isao Yamaguchi of Usui Kokusai Sangyo Kaisha,
Ltd. and Mr. Taizo Shimomura of Shimomura Seisakujo Ltd. for their considerate cooperation in this work.
In addition, the authors would like to declare that the hydrogen gas used in this experiment was filled at Ka-
wasaki Hydrogen Station operated by Japan Air Gases Ltd. under the management by Engineering Ad-
vancement Association of Japan in Hydrogen & Fuel Cell Demonstration Project (JHFC) organized by the
Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry.
References:
1. Shoichi Furuhama and Kimitaka Yamane, ” Combustion Characteristics of Hydrogen Fueled Spark Igni-
tion Engine” , Bulletin of JSAE No. 6, p. 1, 1974
2. Shoichi Furuhama, Yoshiteru Enomoto and Yoshiyuki Kobayashi, ” Liquid Hydrogen Car with Two-Stroke
th
Fuel Injection Spark Ignition Engine” , The 14 International Congress Refrigeration, A3-22, p.1, Sept.
1979
3. Shoichi Furuhama and Takao Fukuma, “ Liquid Hydrogen Fueled Diesel Automobile with Liquid Hydro-
gen Pump” , Advance in Cryogenic Engineering Vol. 31, p.1047, 1986
4. Masaaki Takiguchi, Shoichi Furuhama, Takayuki Suzuki and Makoto Tujita, “ Combustion Improvement
of Hydrogen Fueled Engine for Medium-Duty Trucks” , SAE Paper 870535, 1987
5. Katsuyoshi Koyanagi, Masaru Hiruma, Hiromasa Hashimoto, Kimitaka Yamane and Shoichi Furuhama,
“Low NOx Emission Automobile Liquid Hydrogen Engine by Means of Dual Mixture Formation” , SAE Pa-
per 930757, 1993
6. Tomohiro Fujita, Satoru Ozawa, Kimitaka Yamane, Yasuo Takagi, Yuichi Goto and Matsuo characteris-
tics Odaka, “ Performance of NOx Absorption 3-Way Catalysis Applied to a Hydrogen Fueled Engine €35 ,
The International Association of Hydrogen Energy (IAHE), Hydrogen Energy Progress 10, The Proceed-
ings of the 15th World Hydrogen Energy Conference, Yokohama, Japan, 27 June - 2 July, 2004, CD-
ROM Issued by HESS, p.1-9, 2004
7/7