Hi,

Im just about to start my third year at University and so have a lovely big dissertation to do!

I do some part time work for a race team, and they asked me if I would like to do my dissertation on a project for them.

The project is to analyse two different airbox designs they have, which have about a 10-15hp difference in them, and then come up with some possible design changes to make them more efficient.

I was wondering how difficult it is to model the "suck" of the engine using CFD? I have heard it can be a bit tricky, but didn't know if this meant its the sort of thing which just takes a little while to get right or if it requires decades of CFD experience (which I don't have!!)?

Cheers in advance, any help appreciated!

Cant you get experimental data for the intake and apply that as a BC to the airbox whose geometry can then be slaved to an optimisation algo? Seems like a simple place to start ...

...maybe too simple. This problem seems hardly worth a dissertation because it just requires an application of well established methods, but it's good for a Master thesis.

Standard F1 practice is to use a coupled 1D/3D model. The 1D model provides the "suck", whilst the 3D model looks after the complex flow into and inside the airbox.

Ah I see, would something like GT Power be able to provide the 1D model for it?

I know at Uni we are using Fluent for the CFD and I've seen the two can be couple so if this is the case then that looks like the best way forward.

I presume it would just be a case of getting the engine info from the engine supplier (I was going to do a project using GT-Power anyway so sort of know what info would be required).

In fact, I've just checked on the Fluent website and found this article:

http://www.fluent.com/solutions/auto...r_coupling.pdf

This looks like the sort of thing you were talking about I think?

Yes. Most commercial 1D engine codes couple to at least one of the commercial 3D codes. Here's another example with some more technical details shown:

http://www.ricardo.com/download/pdf/wave_vectis_06.pdf