TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE DISCLOSURE

The present disclosure relates to an active control valve for a fluid pump configured to control an input quantity to the fluid pump.

BACKGROUND OF THE DISCLOSURE

There is a consistent desire to improve the performance of engines. With regard to fluid pumps, controlling the quantity of fluid which is input into the pump can provide improved performance of the engine overall. When the quantity of fluid input into the pump is much greater than an amount of fluid delivered from the pump, a large fluid spill quantity, or amount of excess fluid spilled from the pumping chamber back to the fluid inlet and fluid source is present, and efficiency of the engine is reduced, inlet circuit pressure fluctuations are increased, the temperature of the fluid is increased, and, when the pumped fluid is fuel and the pump's lubricating fluid differs from fuel, the lubricating fluid to fuel and fuel to lubricating fluid transfer is increased. On the other hand, if there is insufficient fluid spill quantity associated with each pumping event, cavitation damage potential is increased and downstream pressure variations may be increased due to an increase in delivery quantity variations. Thus, it would be beneficial to have an active control valve for a fluid pump configured to control an input quantity to the fluid pump such that a small amount of spilled quantity is provided beyond the amount of fluid needed to be delivered from the pump, but not so much that the problems outlined above occur.

SUMMARY OF THE DISCLOSURE

In one embodiment of the present disclosure, a fluid pump is provided. The fluid pump comprises a fluid inlet configured to receive a fluid, a plunger configured to reciprocate within a cylinder from a top dead center position to a bottom dead center position and back to the top dead center position during a given pumping cycle, a pumping chamber defined by the cylinder and the plunger, the pumping chamber being configured to receive the fluid from the fluid inlet, a control valve configured to open to allow fluid to be provided to the pumping chamber, and close after the plunger has passed the bottom dead center position, and a fluid outlet configured to receive a delivery amount of the fluid from the pumping chamber, wherein a first amount of fluid is configured to be provided to the pumping chamber, the first amount of fluid being greater than the delivery amount of fluid.

In another embodiment of the present disclosure, a fluid pump configured to provide a delivered quantity of fluid to an engine during a pumping event is provided. The fluid pump comprises a fluid inlet configured to receive a fluid, a plunger configured to reciprocate within a cylinder from a top dead center position to a bottom dead center position and back to the top dead center position during the pumping event, a pumping chamber defined by the cylinder and the plunger, the pumping chamber configured to receive the fluid from the fluid inlet, a control valve configured to open to allow a first quantity of fluid to be provided to the pumping chamber, and close after the plunger has passed the bottom dead center position, and a fluid outlet configured to receive the delivered quantity of the fluid from the pumping chamber, wherein the delivered quantity of the fluid is less than a sum of the first quantity of fluid provided to the pumping chamber and a leakage quantity from the pumping chamber during the pumping event.

In a further embodiment of the present disclosure, a fluid system coupled to an engine is provided. The fluid system comprises a fluid source, and a fluid pump fluidly coupled to the fluid source and configured to deliver an amount of fluid to the engine, wherein the fluid pump comprises a fluid inlet configured to receive fluid from the fluid source, a plunger configured to reciprocate within a cylinder from a top dead center position to a bottom dead center position and back to the top dead center position during a given pumping cycle, a pumping chamber defined by the plunger and the cylinder, the pumping chamber configured to receive the fluid from the fluid inlet, a control valve configured to open to allow a first amount of the fluid to be provided to the pumping chamber, the first amount of the fluid including the amount of fluid to be delivered to the engine and an amount of fluid to be spilled from the pumping chamber back into the fluid source, and a fluid outlet configured to receive the amount of fluid to be delivered to the engine from the pumping chamber, wherein the amount of fluid to be delivered to the engine is less than a sum of the first amount of fluid provided to the pumping chamber and the amount of fluid to be spilled from the pumping chamber during the pumping event.

