Influence of intake runner cross section design on the engine performance parameters of a four stroke, naturally aspirated carbureted SI engine

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

The current scenario of the transportation sector reflects the urgent need to address issues such as depletion of traditional fuel reserves and ever growing pollution levels. Researchers around the world are focussing on alternatives as well as optimisation of currently employed devices to reduce the pollution levels generated by the commonly used fuels. One such optimisation involves the study of air flow within the intake manifolds of SI engines. It is a well-known fact that alterations in the air manifolds of engines have a significant impact on the engine performance parameters, fuel consumption and emission levels. Previous works have demonstrated the impacts of runner lengths, diameter, plenum volume, taper angle of distribution manifolds and other factors on in-cylinder fluid motion and engine performance. However, a static setup provides an optimal configuration only at a specific engine speed. This paper aims to investigate the variations in the same parameters on a four stroke, naturally aspirated single cylinder SI engine through varying the cross section design over the intake runner with the aid of Computational Fluid Dynamics. The system consists of segments that form the intake runner with projections on the inside that allow various permutations of the intake runner segments. The various configurations provide the optimised fluid flow characteristics within the intake manifold at specific engine speed intervals. The variations such as turbulence, air fuel mixing are analysed using the three dimensional CFD software FLUENT. The results can be used further for developing an automated or manually adjustable intake manifold.