International Research Journal of Engineering and Technology (IRJET) e-ISSN: 2395-0056

Volume: 05 Issue: 04 | Apr-2018 www.irjet.net p-ISSN: 2395-0072

Analysis of Air Intake for Formula Student Race Car

P M Sawant1, S S Sawant2, P N Gurav3, P S Nivalkar4, & Dr. S N Waghmare2,

Students, Mechanical Engineering Department, Rajendra Mane College of Engineering & Technology,
1,2,3,4

Ambav (Devrukh), Ratnagiri, Maharashtra, India

2Assistant Prof. & HOD Mechanical, Mechanical Engineering Department, Rajendra Mane College of Engineering &

Technology, Ambav (Devrukh), Ratnagiri, Maharashtra, India

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ABSTRACT- In this research paper according to the FSAE Singhal, A., &Parveen, M. (2013) It found that optimal
rules a 20 mm restrictor which is to be fitted in the intake solution to achieve the maximum mass flow with minimal
manifold of a Formula SAE car engine is analyzed. Intake pull from the engine. From the data gathered through the
manifold is the breathing system of the car engine which numerous simulations in Solid Works Flow Simulation,
supplies air to the engine cylinders where the combustion of optimized values for converging angle & diverging angle of
the fuel occurs. In rulebook which is designed by SAE the Ventures.
committee. Analytical calculations are done based on
standard results to get maximum mass flow rate and CFD Shinde, P. A. (2014) In this paper performed analytical
tool is used to calculate minimum pressure drop across the calculations based on standard results to get minimum air
restrictor buy varying converging and diverging angles of flow rate and CFD tool is used to calculate minimum
venturi. Objectives of this research is to optimize a venturi pressure drop across the restrictor by varying converging
type design to allow maximum possible mass flow rate to and diverging angles of venture.
the engine from 20 mm restrictor by reducing the difference
in pressure across venturi at all speeds. Logan M. Shelagowski and Thomas A. Mahanak. In this
paper Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) flow modeling
Keywords: - Runner, Plenum, Air Restrictor. software used analyze and visualize fluid flow to Reached
maximum flow, higher volume flow rate (4.8 CFM on
I. INTRODUCTION average), will create a more robust low- to mid-range
torque, to optimize engine performance
The purpose of this project is to optimize a venturi type
restrictor which is to be fitted in the intake manifold of a Rahul Puri et.al (2016) This studied the design process
Formula SAE car engine. The main purpose of 20mm of the air intake and exhaust system of the SAE Supra Race
restrictor in intake manifold is to restrict mass flow Car. Flow analysis for individual components are carried
passing to the engine thus reducing its maximum power. out, and verified against performance simulations of the
The FSAE rules committee imposed a rule that power of entire engine system, followed by physical testing of
any four-stroke engine used in the competition should be several of the components using a flow bench. They
limited by a 20 mm intake restrictor. achieved the purpose of compensating the pressure losses
because of restrictor of 20 mm according to SAE rulebook
After including the 20 mm restrictor the engine and ultimately the power losses of engine.
revolutions are controlled from 10000 RPM to 7500 RPM.
At such high speed, engine requires large amount of air for Sachin N Waghmare et.al (2016) In this paper optimize
combustion. Thus, the mass flow rate should increase the the venture type of restrictor included in the intake system
air has to pass with very high velocity to fulfill the engine as imposed in the FSAE rule. The fluid flow through the
with required quantity of air. According to studies, mass intake was analyzed using CFD flow modeling software. In
flow rate is a fixed parameter for 20 mm restrictor used for this research paper, it is found that converging angle of 12
the calculations in further optimization. Thus, the objective degree and diverging angle 6 degree gives minimum
is to allow maximum possible mass flow with minimum pressure drop at the exit of expansion cone.
pressure drop across the venture type restrictor.
Shubham Raj et.al (2016) In this paper it was purposed
II. LITERATURE REVIEW that venturi type design to allow maximum possible rate to
the engine from 20 mm restrictor buy difference in
Design and Fabrication of Air Intake for FSAE Race Car pressure across venturi Analytical calculations are done
we referred various papers: based on to get maximum mass flow rate and CFD calculate
minimum pressure drop across the varying converging and
S S Sawant et al (2017) In this paper by using the trial diverging angles of be observed from CFD results that for
and iterative method the convergent and divergent angles diverging angle of 14 degrees and 6 degrees minimum
are calculated. And weight reduction of the system was also pressure drop can be achieved.
considered.

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Kaushal Kishor (2015) The author approached for Helmholtz theory addresses the fact that an Internal
designing, analyzing and manufacturing of air intake and Combustion Engine creates pressure waves that propagate
exhaust system is discussed for prototype model of a in the engines intake system. Air compressibility can be
Formula style car with the locally available resources in linked to a spring force introducing resonance in the
hand as per the rules specified by the two major student intake manifold as the wave propagation takes place. A
level events organized in India. single cylinder and intake runner with its intake valve
open constitutes a Helmholtz resonator. Tuning peak takes
III. Theory place when the natural frequency of cylinder and runner is
about twice the piston frequency. 3) Design Constants and
For this we use theoretical data and formulae of the Variables: Since the aim is to optimized the intake
Venturi meter in the following way. Using Bernoulli’s restrictor, the mass flow rate calculation is to be done.
equation in the special case of incompressible flows (e.g.
the flow of water or other liquid, or low speed flow of gas), Maximum flow rate is: m = r*V*A
the theoretical pressure drop p1-p2 at the constriction is
For an ideal compressible gas:
given by
( ) [ ( )]
√ ( )

Where A = cross-sectional area at which the flow is

sonic, P0 is the stagnation pressure, T0 is the stagnation
temperature, R is the specific gas constant, and k = cp/cv is
the specific heat ratio of the gas. The maximum flow rate
can be expressed in terms of inlet temperature Ti and inlet
Where A the area of cross-section of Venturi at any pressure Pi by expressing the stagnation temperature and
point and v is the velocity of air at that point. stagnation pressure as

( )
( )

Where Vi is the inlet velocity.

Mass flow rate is maximum when M = 1. At these

conditions, flow is choked.

But as we can see, all the above calculations have been The mass flow rate from above equation is calculated
made based on one assumption – Incompressible Flow. using the following data values :

K-omega: - M=1

This type of simulation is applied for high velocity A = 0.001256 m2 (20 mm restriction)
objects such as planes, jet planes, etc. since the FSAE race R = 0.286 KJ/Kg-K
cars doesn’t reach that much high speed we have to check
an alternate method for this analysis. ϒ = 1.4
P0= 101325 Pa
K-epsilon:-
T = 300 K
This type of analysis are used for moderate velocity
Mass flow rate = 0.0703 kg/sec
objects such as cars, bikes, etc. since the FSAE race cars are
ranged in this speed criteria we use this type of analysis. The conical spline intake design is chosen because it
K-epsilon is further sub-divided but we use “K-epsilon has lowest loss of total pressure through the restrictor.
resilience” for our model The complete air intake system is design in Solidworks &
analyze in Ansys Fluent Workbench with appropriate
To perform the CFD analysis for this model we use the
boundary conditions.
“K-epsilon resilience type of CFD analysis.
Air intake system is divided in 3 parts i.e., Restrictor,
Helmholtz Theory (S.N. Waghmare, et al, IJETMAS
Plenum & Runner.
February 2016, Volume 4, Issue 2, ISSN 2349-4476)

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 International Research Journal of Engineering and Technology (IRJET) e-ISSN: 2395-0056
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1. Restrictor

For the restrictor, we considered the design of

convergent-divergent nozzle. Total length of restrictor is
145mm. For convergent section, both the end diameters
are constrained (36mm of throttle body and20mm of the
restrictor). For divergent section outlet diameter is
41.5mm.

Boundary Conditions:

Inlet : PRESSURE INLET = 1 Atmosphere

Outlet: MASS FLOW OUTLET = 0.0703KG/S

The results of iterations carried out at various

converging and diverging angles are as follows Fig 3. Contours of Pressure for Iteration 2(Pascal)

Table No. 1

Iteration Converging Diverging Pressure

no Angle (degree) Angle (degree) Difference (Pa)
1 12 6 1894.48
2 10.5 6 1856.20
3 9 5 1999.56

Fig 4. Velocity Vector for Iteration 2

Fig 1. Contours of Pressure for Iteration 1(Pascal)

Fig 5. Contours of Pressure for Iteration 3(Pascal)

Fig 2. Velocity Vector for Iteration 1

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At resonant conditions, the pressure wave has to

travel 19.12 feet to arrive at the intake valve when it is
open. Since the pressure wave spends this time going up
the runner AND going back down the runner, the runner
length is actually only half of 19.12 feet, or 9.56 feet, which
is equal to 114.77 inches.

But, here we can’t use such long runner, so we divide

it (by 7) as suitable.

Runner Length = 16.39 inches = 416 mm

According to RAM Theory, intake system was tuned at

5000 RPM, resulting in total runner length of 416mm.

The CFD of whole air intake system is also done at the

Fig 6. Velocity Vector for Iteration 2 end in Ansys Fluent by applying appropriate boundary
conditions.
Convergent angle of 10.5° & Divergent angle of 6° are
selected for restrictor because they gives minimum
pressure loss through the restrictor. As per the CDF
analysis below convergent angle of 10.5° & Divergent
angle of 6° pressure drop increases according to the
results of convergent angle of 9° & Divergent angle of 5°.

2. Plenum

Spherical shape type plenum was considered.

Performance of engine at higher speeds improves with
increase in plenum volume. Volume of plenum is 1.2 liter,
which is almost 3 times the engine displacement.

3. Runner

Calculation of Runner Length:

Speed of pressure wave = 1116.44 feet/second Fig 7.Velocity Streamline

Effective Cam Duration (ECD) = 226°

EVCD = Effective Valve Closed Duration

= 720-(ECD) = (720-226) + 20

= 514°

5000 rev/minute divided by 60 seconds/minute

= 83.33 rev/second

83.33 rev/second X 360°/rev = 30,000°/second

514° / 30,000° per second = 0.0171 seconds.

At 5000 RPM, 514° = 0.0171 seconds

Fig 8.Contours of Pressure (Pascal)
This 0.0171 seconds is the critical time factor. During
this 0.0171 seconds that the intake valve is closed, the
pressure wave is moving at 1116.44 feet/second and
travels 19.12 feet.

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 International Research Journal of Engineering and Technology (IRJET) e-ISSN: 2395-0056
Volume: 04 Issue: 09 | Sep -2017 www.irjet.net p-ISSN: 2395-0072

ACKNOWLEDGMENT
We would like to express my sincere thanks to our friend
Aditya Kadam who helped us out in performing the
Computational Fluid Dynamics accurately, after a lot of
practice and hours put into it. Our sincere thanks to Prof.
S. N. Waghmare of Mechanical Department for giving us
the opportunity to take up this paper, for his guidance and
supervision in all respects of this paper.

REFERENCES
1. Singhal, A., &Parveen, M. (2013). Air Flow
Optimization via a Venturi Type Air Restrictor. In
Proceedings of the World Congress on Engineering.
London.

2. Rahul Puri, Harshal Darade, Yogesh Supekar ,

Sushant Ulavi, Santosh Kumar Bawage (2016), “Design
and Analysis of Intake and Exhaust System of SAE Supra
Race Car” International Research Journal of Engineering
Fig 9.Air Intake Assembly and Technology (IRJET) Volume: 03 Issue: 06 | June-
2016 www.irjet.net © 2016, IRJET | Impact Factor
value: 4.45 | ISO 9001:2008 Certified Journal.

3. Shinde, P. A. (2014). Research and optimization of

intake restrictor for FormulaSAE car engine.
International Journal of Scientific and Research
Publications, 4(4).

4. Logan M. Shelagowski and Thomas A. Mahanak.

Formula SAE intake restrictor Design and performance.
Saginaw Valley State University.

5. Sachin N Waghmare, Nikhil S Karekar, Pankaj P

Karande, Santosh B Pandhare,“Design & Analysis for
Intake System of Formula SAE Car” International
Research Journal of Engineering and Technology,
Management & Applied Science (IRJET) February
2016,Volume 4, Issue 2, ISSN 2349-4476.

6. Shubham Raj, Ashish Kr. Singh, Tuhin Srivastava,

Vipul Vibhanshu. “Analysis of Air Intake for Formula
SAE Vehicle” Krishna Institute of Engineering and
Technology Ghaziabad, UPTU, Vth International
Fig 10. Final assembly of air intake Symposium on “Fusion of Science & Technology”, New
Delhi, India, January 18-22, 2016.
IV. CONCLUSION
7. Kaushal Kishor, “Design and Fabrication of Intake and
The flow analysis using Computational fluid dynamics Exhaust Manifold of a Prototype Race Car”, Department
(CFD) helps to analyze the flow in the intake manifold. The Of Mechanical Engineering National Institute Of
entire intake system should be optimized to reduce Technology, Rourkela,Rourkela-769008,Odisha, India,
pressure loss and improve engine performance. May 2015.
Convergent angle of 10.5° & Divergent angle of 6° are
selected for restrictor because they gives minimum 8. S S Sawant et al,” Design and Fabrication of Air
pressure loss through the restrictor. Intake for FSAE Race Car” International Journal for
Science And Research In Technology (IJSART) volume X
Issue Y–Month 2015.

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