Drive Control Simulation and Experimental Studies on the Flow Characteristics of a Pump Injector

As a miniaturized direct injection (DI) solution, the pump injector is of great significance for small aviation piston engines, such as two-stroke heavy-fuel engines. The accurate control of the timing and amount of injections is an important application prerequisite. In this paper, the flow characteristics of a pump injector with different driving circuits and parameters are investigated. The effects of the power supply and freewheeling circuits on the opening and closing delays are theoretically studied. A schematic of a self-designed logic control circuit is proposed, and it achieves peak and hold current control without software intervention. Simulations and experiments are carried out, and the drive current and flow characteristics in different states are measured. The results show that when driving a solenoid with a high internal resistance of 2.70 Ω, a single power supply is more suitable, and the variable-freewheeling circuit exhibits excellent performance in terms of control accuracy and energy recovery. Notably, the invariable-freewheeling circuit results in nonlinear flow characteristics, and the nonlinear segment corresponds to the drive current transitioning from the peak value to the hold value. In contrast, the variable-freewheeling circuit overcomes this problem. To comprehensively consider solenoid opening and closing delays, energy consumption and the linearity of the flow characteristics during injection, a peak current of 10 A and a hold current of 8 A are adopted.