Acoustic design of a muffler with hybrid method

Abstract

Exhaust and muffler noise are a challenging problem in the industry. While the main purpose of the system is to reduce the intensity of the acoustic pulses originating from the engine exhaust valves, the back pressure induced by these systems must be kept to a minimum to guarantee maximum performance of the engine. This study presents an efficient process to optimize the transmission loss of Formula Student race car (FS) reactive muffler by using analytical methods. CAD file of the muffler was established for developing the FEA model in AVL BOOST and another commercial advanced design software (SolidWorks 2017). The flow properties, pressure and velocity were moitored. After the model was verified, sensitivity studies of design parameters were performed to optimize the sound pressure level (SPL) of the muffler. Recommendations are made for obtaining smoother SPL curves.