Intake Manifold Material Selection and Fluid Flow Analysis for Formula Society of Automotive Engineers (FSAE) Race Car

Abstract

The Formula SAE competition is organised for students who want to design and build a Formula-style race car. To limit the car's performance for safety and to encourage problem-solving skills, a 20mm restrictor was installed between the carburetor and the intake manifold to reduce air intake. When airflow is restricted, a bottleneck effect occurs, and less air is supplied to the engine for combustion, lowering engine efficiency. The goal of this project is to find a solution to this problem within the rules' limitations. This is accomplished by selecting an intake manifold that provides the best uniform distribution through each outlet and selecting a material that can withstand engine stress and vibrations while maintaining a r elatively low temperature to ensure consistent velocity and pressure. Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) software is used to analyse the design's fluid flow, static, and thermal analysis, and the results are compared for each design. The best design and ma terial will be used on the Universiti Malaysia Perlis Automotive Racing Team (UniART) race car.