Design and Development of a Dry Sump Lubrication System for a Formula SAE Race Car

A Formula student team aims to develop and improve their designs every year, as far as the powertrain aspect is considered performance output and enhancement is the primary aim, and for engine to perform better, the health of the engine is the most important parameter; hence the lubrication system of the vehicles powertrain should be improved to get the most out of the engine. The primary challenge for the development of a new lubrication system was the inability to replicate the performance given by stock wet sump with the self-designed custom dry sump. However, the advantages can outnumber the cons of implementing a custom dry sump lubrication system. The work brought together in this paper highlights the meticulous design procedure for implementing a custom made dry sump system onto a 4-cylinder in-line Honda CBR600RR engine. Moreover, the research paper brings about the extensive process undertaken which includes theoretical calculations, computational analysis and experimental validation of the whole assembly the dry sump system. The design procedure makes use of software like MATLAB, Star CCM+ and SolidWorks. From the simulations and calculations using MATLAB an increase of 0.13G was seen in the maximum lateral acceleration. Sloshing Analysis of the sump pan was carried out and the pick-up points for the dry sump pan was decided based on the simulation results. The validation was carried out with the help of a data acquisition module. The parameters such as volume of reservoir tank, design of sump pan, scavenge or oil pump selection and compatibility, etc. were taken into consideration. To validate the whole design, EOP sensor was used to monitor the oil pressure during varied lateral and longitudinal acceleration values as well as for the full range of RPM. After validation a deviation of only 5 psi was seen on either side of the stock EOP values with the custom dry sump system. Moreover, a decrease of 26.5 mm in CoG height was recorded between the stock and custom lubrication systems which directly translates to better dynamic performance.