2009 International Conference on Measuring Technology and Mechatronics Automation

Study on Pressure Loss for a Muffler Based on CFD and Experiment

Jianhua Fang1, Yiqi Zhou2, Peigang Jiao3 Zaishan Ling4

School of Mechanical Engineering Shandong JOYO Construction Machinery CO., LTD
Shandong University Linyi, Shandong Province, China
Jinan, Shandong Province, China e-mail:[email protected]
e-mail:[email protected]; [email protected];
[email protected]

Abstract—In this work we present the research on pressure and resistance performance separately by SYSNOISE and
loss for a muffler with CFD method. Through using CFD FLUENT for a muffler of a mini truck. Zhong ShH[6] gave
technique, at a certain engine velocity, the flow field of a the preliminary sketch of the muffler with transfer matrix
muffler is simulated and computed, and the total pressure method at first, and then attained the optimized design of
distribution of gas flow internal the muffler is analyzed. It is muffler by means of performance simulation with the CFD
opened out that with the inlet velocity increasing, the total software. Hu XD[7,8] did a great deal of research on
pressure loss becomes higher and higher according to parabola muffler with CFD method.
law similarly. Finally, the availability of CFD simulation In this paper, with CFD method, the flow field of
results is proved by practical test. For the pressure loss of the
complicated exhaust muffler on an excavator will be
muffler, the simulation result is 3824.8pa, while the practical
test result is 4572.26pa, so taking all the influencing factors
simulated and computed. We will study pressure
into account, the error rate is only 19.54%. At the same time, distribution, analyze the reason of yielding high pressure
the practical test also demonstrates that the muffler designed loss, and explore how the pressure loss changes with the
has reached up to the mustard of the whole machine, and has inlet velocity increasing. And in order to prove the validity
been put into use in this type of excavator. of the CFD method for studying the pressure loss of
mufflers, the simulation results will be validated by practical
Keywords-excavator; muffler; CFD; simulation; pressure test.
loss.
II. BASIC THEORY OF FLUID DYNAMICS FOR
RESISTANCE MUFFLER
I. INTRODUCTION
)RU WKH PXIIOHU, tKH LQOHW IORZ PDVV LV HTXDO WR
With the development of economic construction in our
WKDW IURP WKH RXWOHW, and the flow field of mufflers
country, all kinds of engineering machineries play more and
more important part. Following it, comes the serious noise should satisfy the law of conservation of mass, the law of
pollution. Hydraulic excavator is a kind of equipment with conservation of momentum, and the law of energy
high power, and its availability ratio of whole energy is only conservation. And some hypothesis should be presented as
20% or so [1]. Although fixing exhaust muffler can reduce the running conditions for the muffler: (1) the physical
the noise level, it consumes a large mount of energy of parameters of the solid and fluid sections for resistance
engine. Pressure loss can evaluate the aerodynamics muffler are constant; (2) the flow is turbulent among the
performance, which can be represented by the difference of steady flows; (3) the influence of the gravity is ignored; (4)
total pressures of inlet/outlet. Its value can reflect the for the muffler, the inlet velocity is homogeneous, and there
efficiency of the engine. With pressure loss turning bigger, is no affection of the impulse.
for the muffler on engine, its power loss will increase and its Internal the muffler, the velocity of gas flow is higher.
efficiency will be lower, which will bring obvious waste of Taking flow field as ideal turbulence and selecting k − ε
resource and energy. And this is as opposed to world’s basic standard modal, the general control equation can be
policy which is saving energy and lowering consumption. expressed as equation (1)[9].
So research on the law of pressure loss for the muffler is a ∂ ( ρφ )
+ div ( ρνφ ) = div(Γ grad φ ) + S (1)
significant technology assignment in order to improve the ∂t
efficiency of engine and depress the consumption.
In recent years, all over the worldˈmany scholars has The previous formula shows the conservation property of
done a great lot of researches by CFD technology. the physical quantities per time and per volume. In the
Middelberg,J.M.[2] was one of earliest scientist who studied formula, φ is the general variable, which can represent some
the pressure loss internal the muffler. Panigrahi, S.N.[3] solving variables, e.g. u ǃ v ǃand w . Γ is the generalized
evaluated the pressure drop characteristics of four major diffusion coefficient in broad sense; S is the generalized
backpressure-intensive components of automotive mufflers source terms; ν is the velocity vector; ρ is the air density.
by CFD software.With the bench test and CFD simulation, When φ is different, the equation (1) can be expressed as
Gu F[4] optimized a vehicle exhaust system and decreased
the high back-pressure of it. Bi R[5] simulated the acoustic different control equations.

978-0-7695-3583-8/09 $25.00 © 2009 IEEE 887

DOI 10.1109/ICMTMA.2009.357
 III. COMPUTATION PRINCIPLE OF PRESSURE LOSS approximately regard exhaust gases from engine as air with
Following the measuring norm of pressure loss for density 1.255kg/m3 and viscosity 1.7894e-05pa.s. Before
muffler[10], nine equal-located points are selected in the computing, we sewe select Segregated/Implicit solution
inlet/outlet sections, and the average value of total pressure method, Steady flow, and k − ε standard turbulent modal,
was taken as the one of the section. Fig.1 is the sketch map start energy equation and take air as flow fluid.
for measuring the pressure in the inlet/outlet sections. The Boundary conditions are defined according to the
difference of total pressures of the two sections will be correlative inlet/outlet data at a certain speed for a same
considered as the pressure loss of the muffler. Equation (2) type of engine from a construction machinery corporation.
is the computation formula for pressure loss. Specific choices are as follows: velocity-inlet type, at 20m/s
of inlet speed, 813K in temperature, 10% in turbulence
intensity, 50mm hydraulic diameter and outflow outlet type.
In order to simplify the problem, the density of gases in the
muffler is seen as a stable value of 1.255kg/m3 at 813K.
After finishing computation, the convergent results were
saved.
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IV. CFD COMPUTATION OF MUFFLER when proofreading spelling and grammar:
C. Analysis on computation results
A. Physical model
Fig.3 displays the total pressure distribution internal
Fig.2 is the physical model and practical experimental muffler at 20m/s from inlet. We can see that pressure change
sample of the muffler, from which we can see, the muffler is among chambers is very obvious, and it decreases
composed of four chambers. Of all the structures lowering continuously. From the first chamber to the fourth one, and
noise in the muffler, the main structures are perforated pipe to outlet, total pressure is always descending. In inlet section,
and insert pipe. Of them, the perforated pipe can reduce total pressure is 256.556pa, and after getting into the first
noise of higher frequency, and the insert pipe can solve the chamber, total pressure outside of the perforated pipe is
problem that certain noise of lower can’t be attenuated. relatively stable, and the average total pressure is 85.8066pa.
After meshed model was built by gambit, and then was read Perforated structure can cause higher pressure loss, so inside
into fluent to simulate and compute the flow field. perforated pipe, total pressure is —570.8025pa, and pressure
loss after passing through the perforated pipe is 656.6091pa.
If the distance between axes of small holes on the perforated
pipe and inlet axis is different, total pressure of gas through
the perforated pipe will also be different, so the total pressure
distribution takes on a layered state very clearly. Generally
speaking, the more to the left, the higher the total pressure
after perforated pipe is, the lower the pressure loss is. This is
mainly caused by different gas velocity through perforations.
Through analyzing the velocity distributions of muffler, we
find that the velocity from inlet axis to left is getting smaller
and smaller. On the contrary, the pressure from inlet axis to
left after perforations is getting higher and higher, so the
pressure loss will be becoming smaller and smaller in this
Fig. 2. Internal geometry structure and practical sample of the muffler region. All above shows that, with inlet velocity increasing,
the pressure loss after the perforations is higher and higher,
B. Computation boundary conditions settings while on the contrary, with decrease of the inlet velocity, the
pressure loss will getting lower and lower. So when muffler
Exhaust gas is a kind of mixture consist of many types designing, we mustn’t reduce the punching rate of perforated
of gases, and their concentrations respectively are CO<0.2%, pipe blindly in order to pursue higher noise attenuation
HC<0.1%, NOx<0.25%, SO2<0.008%[11]. Because the purely, which will augment the pressure loss for muffler and
concentration sum of all these gases is lower than 0.6%, and reduce the engine efficiency. With inlet velocity constant,
most molecular weight is nearly equal to that of air, here, we lowering the punching rate of perforated pipe will increase

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the flow velocity through perforations, so both pressure loss
of perforated pipe and energy consuming will augment. It is
also showed that the perforated pipe structure will bring in
higher pressure loss[12]. After perforated pipe and the insert
pipe in the second chamber, the pressure value is —
892.1218pa, and the pressure loss from inlet to the second
chamber is 977.9284pa. Between the second and third
chamber, the four insert pipes make pressure fall 279.4pa,
and out the perforated pipe in the third chamber, the total
pressure is —1283.3pa. When gas flow gets into the fourth
chamber from perforated pipe, the total pressure internal the
Fig. 5. Fitting curves of pressure loss
perforated pipe is —2719.3pa, while that of outlet of
perforations is —3071.5pa, so the pressure loss is 352.2pa,
which is lower than that of the perforated pipe in the first V. COMPARISON BETWEEN SIMULATION AND
chamber. The main reason is that the inlet velocity of gas MEASUREMENT
flow from perforations to the fourth chamber is lower than
that of gas flow from the first chamber to the perforations. In order to verify the availability of CFD method,
practical pressure measurement is followed to test the
accuracy of simulation results. The muffler in the Fig.2 is
fixed on the excavator to carry out the flow velocity and
pressure test, and the pressure loss of the muffler at an inlet
velocity of 20m/s will be measured. The pressure losses
measured and simulated above will be compared, and then
their differences between the two kinds of results will be
studied. At last, some possible reasons for the differences
will be given.
In the practical test, the measuring system consists of
micro-computer digital pressure gauge SYT-2000 and pitot.
Fig.6 shows the system of measuring inlet velocity. U-pipe
 method is used to measure the inlet/outlet pressure value.
Fig. 3. Pressure distribution at 20m/s from inlet Because the frequency of exhaust pulse of engine is very
high, pressure gauge can’t easily get the pressure value for
Fig.4 shows that the points distribution of pressure loss each position. While U-pipe method can make use of the
when inlet velocity for the muffler is 10, 20, 30……100m/s. liquidity of water which can filter the frequency of exhaust
With the increase of inlet velocity, pressure loss is rising pulse of engine, and the average inlet/outlet pressure of
according to similar parabola curves. When inlet velocity is muffler will be easily measured. During practical
10m/s, the pressure loss is only 966.581pa. With velocity measurement, some things as follows must be drawn much
increasing, pressure loss is turning higher and higher, and the attention. The relative test data should be read after the
pressure loss reaches up to 94806pa when the inlet velocity engine velocity of excavator is in a stable state; the axes of
is 100m/s. Fig.5 was the fitting result of pressure loss points both inlet of L type pitot and air conduit must be in the same
according to quadratic fit. From the fitting curves, for this line, and the inlet of pitot should face the coming gas flow.
muffler, we can get the pressure loss of any velocity value Fig.7 is the practical field test system measuring inlet
from 10m/s to 100m/s. And this type of fitting curve could pressure for muffler.
give us some help. Inlet velocity plays an important part in
the pressure loss for muffler, so in muffler designing, we
should make great efforts to depress the velocity of gas flow
internal the muffler, which can reduce gas flow regeneration
noise and pressure loss of muffler.

Fig. 6. System for measuring the inlet velocity


Fig. 4. Changes of pressure loss with inlet velocities

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 ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors gratefully acknowledge the experimental and
technical support of Shandong JOYO Construction
Machinery CO., LTD. And this work is supported by Sci-
Tech Development Research Projects of Shandong Province,
China under Grant No 2007GG3WZ04017.
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