An Open-Source Solenoid Injector Driver Circuit for Fuel Injection Research

Common rail, high-pressure electronic fuel injection is one of the primary technologies enabling high-efficiency and low emissions in modern diesel engines. Most fuel injectors utilize an actively controlled solenoid valve to actuate a needle that modulates the fuel supply into the combustion chamber. The electrical drive circuit for the injector requires extensive development costs, and thus, most designs are proprietary in nature, making it difficult to perform academic studies of the fuel injection processes. This research presents an injector driver circuit to control one or more solenoid injectors simultaneously for research-based injector development efforts. The electrical circuit was computationally modeled and optimized iteratively, and then, electronic hardware was developed to demonstrate control of a Bosch CRIN3 solenoid diesel injector as proof of concept. In addition, the injector performance was quantified by the fuel rate of injection (ROI) profiles obtained in a test rig utilizing the momentum flux method. Results show that the electronic control inputs do not affect the initial fuel ROI profile, which is impacted mainly by the injector geometry and associated fluid dynamics effects.