Design modification of intake manifold using computational fluid dynamics

Abstract

Air flow in the intake manifold directly affects the combustion performance, volumetric efficiency, output and emission level of engine. For better efficiency of the engine, equal velocity distribution is required at the outlets of the intake manifold. In the present study, design of intake manifold of Maruti Suzuki Alto K-10 has been modified with the help of CFD analysis to achieve equal outlet velocities for all three outlets of inlet manifold at given inlet velocity. In order to validate CFD results, experiments were conducted on intake manifold. Initially, for design modification, 3D model was modeled with the help of designing software (SolidWorks). CFD analysis was conducted on this model using ANSYS Fluent 15.0 and the velocity distribution obtained. Further, to achieve the objective, four models were made in the software with some modifications in actual model. Also, the simulation results of these models were compared with the results of actual model, at different inlet velocities. Finally, an improved geometry of intake manifold was proposed. It was observed that with increase in the inlet velocity, outlet velocities also increased, for all the outlets, in all the models. The results obtained from proposed geometry had shown nearly same velocities at all the outlets. In this proposed geometry, there was increase in outlet velocity at all the outlets and the maximum increase was observed at outlet 1 with an increment of 38.84% at 15 m/s inlet velocity, as compared to actual model.