Pressure Reduction in Intake System of a Turbocharged-Inter Cooled DI Diesel Engine Using CFD Methodology

With stringent emission norms coming to place for automotive/Off-highway vehicles and locomotives in the next few years, there is a lot of research going on to minimize emission and SFC. For this purpose a lot of areas are explored for significant benefits including the intake and exhaust paths, combustion, after-treatment devices. Of these the intake system, which supplies the cylinder with the required amount of air at required pressure and temperature is one of the critical systems. Various components are modified and added to the intake system to either get the required pressure and temperature (ex: intercoolers and compressor) or to get the required composition (EGR circuit) for emission reduction. Addition or modification of these components increases the pressure loss in the intake system, which affects the airflow rate.

The present paper addresses the recovery of pressure loss in intake system through a series of design changes for the piping, inflow and outflow areas from components like intercoolers and compressors. It talks about significant design time reduction using parametric approach in Unigraphics (UG - Cad modeling), ICEM CFD (grid generation package), STAR-CD (CFD solver) and optimization using ‘6 sigma’ methodology. It also discusses the method to determine porosity parameters required to simulate the ‘tube-fin core’ of the heat exchanger.