Design, Analysis and Simulation of an Intake Manifold

A complete intake manifold was designed and built for a 600cc engine. This device was part of the engine’s air admission system for use in a formula type racecar for an engineering competition. The effect of the plenum volume, plenum shape, inlet restrictor geometry, and runner length, and how these affect the intake manifold performance was numerically investigated. A CFD based FEA software, Ricardo WAVE, was used to model the engine parameters and intake geometries, and perform running engine simulations to evaluate the intake manifold’s performance. Different acoustic geometries were generated, tested and simulated with Ricardo WAVE via parametric iterations. The intake manifold’s performance capacity was tested; torque and horsepower curves were measured under controlled operating conditions in a dynamometer and compared with Ricardo WAVE results. It was found an acceptable agreement between the numerical and experimental data.