Performance Enhancement through Air Intake Restrictor Tuning by Fluid Flow Analysis for Formula Vehicle

SAE Formula Student Car Organization mandates the installation of a 20mm diameter restrictor between the throttle body and the engine inlet. The primary objective of this restrictor is to regulate and reduce the mass flow of air into the engine inlet. To achieve this, a venture nozzle has been selected as the ideal component, to decrease air pressure while simultaneously increasing velocity within the intake manifold. This research project focuses on optimizing the restrictor by strategically adjusting the convergent and diverging angles. To enhance the restrictor's efficiency, a comprehensive Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) analysis was conducted, exploring a wide range of convergent angles from 12° to 24° and divergent angles spanning from 4° to 8°. The analysis was performed using CFD Fluent within the ANSYS Workbench platform. Following an extensive series of CFD simulations, the optimal angle combination was found to be a converging angle of 20° combined with a divergent angle of 5°, resulting in maximum pressure drop and sonic flow. Also, these angles were carefully selected to maximize airflow velocity, ultimately leading to a significant enhancement in engine performance.