Technical Paper
Improving Valve Retainer Life for Fuel Pressure Regulators
1999-03-01
1999-01-0794
Past experiences showed that the retainer life varied across different types of pressure regulators - even when the retainer designs and materials remained the same. The objective of this work was to identify the root causes behind this phenomenon and to improve the retainer life. Both analytical and experimental approaches were employed. For the analytic approach, a CAE tool (the SABER code) was used to simulate the system dynamics of the pressure regulator components (as main spring, valve body, valve ball, retainer, and valve spring) under repetitive pressure surges caused by fuel injection. The predicted relative motions were used to characterize impacts between the valve ball and the retainer, and then to estimate the retainer life through a simplified fatigue model. Effects of nine parameters on pressure regulator's dynamic performance were studied.