Int. J. Vehicle Design, Vol. 46, No. 3, 2008 309 Copyright © 2008 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd. Virtual design and development of compact fast-acting fuel injector solenoid actuator Aleksandar Subic* School of Aerospace, Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, RMIT University, Bundoora East Campus, P.O. Box 71, 3083 Bundoora, Victoria, Australia E-mail: aleksandar.subic@rmit.edu.au *Corresponding author Dean Cvetkovic School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, RMIT University, City Campus, G.P.O Box 2476V, 3001 Melbourne, Victoria, Australia E-mail: dean.cvetkovic@rmit.edu.au Abstract: Modern petrol engines demand lightweight, compact, fast-acting fuel-injectors. There has been an increasing focus in recent years on the development of automotive fuel injector solenoids that would allow reduction in size while not compromising their performance. The main objective of this research is to develop a specific virtual design approach capable of reducing the size of the fuel injector solenoid while improving its response time and attraction force. The simplicity and effectiveness of the developed virtual design methods allow for quick and accurate evaluation of alternative fuel injector designs early in the design and development stage. Keywords: electro-mechanical; modelling; control; fuel injector; solenoid; actuating force; response time. Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Subic, A. and Cvetkovic, D. (2008) ‘Virtual design and development of compact fast-acting fuel injector solenoid actuator’, Int. J. Vehicle Design, Vol. 46, No. 3, pp.309–327. Biographical notes: Aleksandar Subic is the Head of School of Aerospace, Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering at RMIT University, Australia and Chair in Mechanical Design. He is the Director of SAE-A and member of Editorial Board of the International Journal of Vehicle Design. He leads the research group in Automotive Design and has published over 200 internationally peer reviewed publications. He is internationally renowned for his work in sustainable engineering design. Dean Cvetkovic is a Lecturer in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, RMIT University, Australia. He graduated with a BEng in Electrical Engineering, MEng and PhD from RMIT University. His main research focus over the past ten years has been electro-mechanical and