Very Small Injection Technology (V-SInTech) Demo

The proposed Phase II will demonstrate JM Harwood’s Very Small Injection Technology (V-SInTech) Direct Fuel Injection (DFI) system in a Very Small Heavy Fuel (VSHF) engine. The V-SInTech DFI system provides the fine atomization necessary to rapidly evaporate heavy fuel and precisely controls the injection timing to ensure efficient heavy fuel operation. The V-SInTech will eliminate the heavy, high pressure fuel pump typical in diesel fuel delivery systems. It is an enabling technology for any light-weight, high performance VSHF engine, given that a direct fuel injection system is needed for any high performance, heavy fuel engine. The proposed Phase II effort will pursue a two-pronged approach. The first prong will demonstrate the V-SInTech direct fuel injection system. The second prong will fabricate a versatile VSHF combustion test bed which will provide a test platform for the V-SInTech direct fuel injection system and heavy fuel combustion tests. The low compression heavy fuel combustion tests will provide data relevant to conventional spark ignited engine cycles used in Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs). The high compression very small heavy fuel combustion test will explore the feasibility of a diesel cycle for VSHF UAV engines.