Experimental and Numerical Analysis of a Motorcycle Air Intake System Aerodynamics and Performance

Abstract

Induction system or also known as the breathing system is a sub-component of the internal combustion system that supplies clean air for the combustion process. A good design of the induction system would be able to supply the air with adequate pressure, temperature and density for the combustion process to optimizing the engine performance. The induction system has an internal flow problem with a geometry that has rapid expansion or diverging and converging sections that may lead to sudden acceleration and deceleration of flow, flow separation and cause excessive turbulent fluctuation in the system. The aerodynamic performance of these induction systems influences the pressure drop effect and thus the engine performance. Therefore, in this work, the aerodynamics of motorcycle induction systems is to be investigated for a range of Cubic Feet per Minute (CFM). A three-dimensional simulation of the flow inside a generic 4-stroke motorcycle airbox were done using Reynolds-Averaged Navier Stokes (RANS) Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) solver in ANSYS Fluent version 11. The simulation results are validated by an experimental study performed using a flow bench. The study shows that the difference of the validation is 1.54% in average at the total pressure outlet. A potential improvement to the system have been observed and can be done to suit motorsports applications.

Throttling Effect on the Performance and Emissions of a Multi-Cylinder Gasoline Fuelled Spark Ignition Engine

“…To compensate for this reduction, the engine should perform extra work on the piston, which increases the intake pumping losses. As a result, under part load conditions, engines use some of the work to pump air across the partially closed throttle valve [7]. Consequently, the thermal efficiency of the spark ignition engine, which is running at low loads, is reduced due to the effect of the throttle valve that controls the engine load and by the fact that the compression starts at low pressure [8].…”

Experimental and Numerical Studies on the Development of Hysteresis in a Shock Absorber with a Shim Disc Valve

“…In industrial applications, the most commonly used are the URANS (Unsteady-RANS), two-equation models from the group of k-ε or k-ω models [21], [22]. They enable significant savings in computational power compared to detailed Direct Numerical Simulation (DNS) or partially simplified Large Eddy Simulation (LES) methods of turbulence modelling [23], [24]. For the purpose of this numerical model, it was decided to use the Realisable k-ε model, which is an improved version of the Standard k-ε model.…”

Modeling and Tuning of Electronic Throttle Control System in Formula Student Car

“…The study of the air intake system for the internal combustion engine is still ongoing [1], [2], [3], [4], [5]. An electronic throttle control (ETC) system is a common component of a car built with a spark-ignition engine.…”