Flow analysis of a control ball valve in a common rail fuel injector

The electronic control common rail fuel injection system is one of the key technologies being used in modern diesel engines to improve the engine performance. A numerical simulation was conducted to study the characteristics of the fuel flow around the ball valve in the common rail fuel injector. The lift of the control ball valve and static pressure of the flow field around the control ball valve were measured respectively. The simulation was performed with the measurements as boundary conditions such that the flow characteristics can be correlated with the valve lift and the pressure upstream of the ball valve. Simulation results showed that during the valve opening and closing, a high pressure area appeared below the ball valve, while cavitation appeared in the area around the control ball valve. Specifically, the cavitation mainly appeared around the sealing circle, and its upstream area and the conical surface from the entrance to a certain distance downstream. The flow throttling happened at the outlet orifice under the steady-state condition when the valve was at the maximum opening position. The cavitation around the control ball valve was more serious under higher rail pressure conditions. The formation and development of the cavitation was found to be depending on the lift position of the ball valve and pressure of the flow around the ball valve during the valve opening and valve closing. Higher value of void fraction appeared in the flow when the lift of the ball valve was at a larger opening position. It was found that cavitation around the ball valve will affect the consistency and stability of the fuel flow. And cavitation erosion found at the valve seat from a simplified durability test appeared to be close to the place where cavitation appeared from simulation. Therefore, it is suggested that simulation work can be used to examine if cavitation occurs in the flow path of the control ball valve inside the injector in design phase and make necessary changes on the design to prevent the cavitation and the resulting damages to the control ball valve in the injector.