Systematic design approach for tailored air intake manifolds

Abstract

The work described in this paper aims to present a systematic approach for efficiently exploiting Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations in early conceptual design phases. More specifically, the proposed procedure strives to use simplified CFD models with a limited amount of computational resources. It is then expected to better support preliminary evaluations of the fluid dynamic efficiency of early ideas, as well as to support idea generation. The proposed approach is focused on the conceptual design phase, intended here as the design stage where new ideas about forms and geometries for the fluid volume are generated. A systematic and iterative procedure has been devised and constitutes the core of the approach, which has been applied to a real case study, involving both industrial and academic staff. Five different concepts have been proposed and then evaluated from a manufacturing point of view by the industrial staff, who identified a preferred solution, which has been further developed and then verified through an additional simulation. The results show that by using the proposed systematic procedure, it has been possible to prevent the firm from developing a non-optimal solution, previously hypothesized by following a simple intuitive path based on precedent experiences. This work shows that the adoption of systematic design approaches integrated with modern tools like CFD can actually be a valid support also for SMEs.