Experimental and Computational Study for the Optimization of Race Car Intake Air Flow 2001-01-1852

The performances increasing of internal combustion engines for race car has driven to develop special systems in order to improve the volumetric efficiency. To this aim, in the last years, a great effort has been done especially in studying geometries for airbox, turbo-compressors, special exhaust systems, etc.

In this paper, the project of a “high-performance” airbox for a naturally aspirated internal combustion engine (ICE) of a car racing in prototype sport competitions is described. In order to optimize the airbox geometry under extremely complex operative conditions, the fluid dynamic phenomena inside the airbox have been studied by means of a three dimensional computational code (3D CFD). This approach has allowed to study different airbox geometry and to define the one to be realized and tested on race track.

The new airbox geometry, defined in this way, has brought to good results. In fact, the tests on race-track, show that there is great improvement of car performances in comparison to the ones obtained with the unmodified airbox.