Energy Conversion and Management 51 (2010) 22392244

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Energy Conversion and Management

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/enconman

Design of a new SI engine intake manifold with variable length plenum

M.A. Ceviz *, M. Akn
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Atatrk, Erzurum 25240, Turkey

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: This paper investigates the effects of intake plenum length/volume on the performance characteristics of
Received 5 August 2009 a spark-ignited engine with electronically controlled fuel injectors. Previous work was carried out mainly
Accepted 21 March 2010 on the engine with carburetor producing a mixture desirable for combustion and dispatching the mixture
to the intake manifold. The more stringent emission legislations have driven engine development
towards concepts based on electronic-controlled fuel injection rather than the use of carburetors. In
Keywords: the engine with multipoint fuel injection system using electronically controlled fuel injectors has an
Intake manifold
intake manifold in which only the air ows and, the fuel is injected onto the intake valve. Since the intake
Intake plenum
Engine performance
manifolds transport mainly air, the supercharging effects of the variable length intake plenum will be dif-
ferent from carbureted engine.
Engine tests have been carried out with the aim of constituting a base study to design a new variable
length intake manifold plenum. Engine performance characteristics such as brake torque, brake power,
thermal efciency and specic fuel consumption were taken into consideration to evaluate the effects
of the variation in the length of intake plenum. The results showed that the variation in the plenum
length causes an improvement on the engine performance characteristics especially on the fuel consump-
tion at high load and low engine speeds which are put forward the system using for urban roads. Accord-
ing to the test results, plenum length must be extended for low engine speeds and shortened as the
engine speed increases. A system taking into account the results of the study was developed to adjust
the intake plenum length.
2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
It is known that the design of engine components, measuring
and control methodology of the operating parameters are very
important to improve the engine performance and emission char-
acteristics. Effectively adjusting the operating parameters such as
the relative airfuel ratio, spark timing, fuel injection timing, valve
timing, exhaust gas recirculation ratio and compression ratio in SI
and CI engines at different engine operation conditions improves
signicantly the engine characteristics. The effects of such engine
operating parameters and their control technologies have been
studied excessively by researchers and the product designers. In
engines, conguration of the intake system plays also an important
role on the engine performance, and there are many experimental
and theoretical studies on the intake system and manifold design
[16].
Intake manifolds consist typically of a plenum, to the inlet of
which bolts the throttle-body, with the individual runners feeding
branches which lead to each cylinder. Important design criteria
* Corresponding author. Fax: +90 442 236 09 57.
E-mail address: aceviz@atauni.edu.tr (M.A. Ceviz).
are: low air ow resistance; good distribution of air and fuel be-
tween cylinders; runner and branch lengths that take advantage
of ram and tuning effects; sufcient (but not excessive) heating
to ensure adequate fuel vaporization with carbureted or throttle-
body injected engines [7]. The intake system on an engine has
one main goal, to get as much airfuel mixture into the cylinder
as possible.
The intermittent or pulsating nature of the airow through the
intake manifold into each cylinder may develop resonances in the
airow at certain speeds. These may increase the engine perfor-
mance characteristics at certain engine speeds, but may reduce
at other speeds, depending on manifold dimensions and shape.
Conventional intake manifolds for vehicles have xed air ow
geometry and static intake manifold. With a static intake manifold,
the speed at which intake tuning occurs is xed. A static intake
manifold can only be optimized for one specic rpm, so it is bene-
cial to develop a method to vary the intake length/volume, since
the engine operates over a broad speed range.
Variable length intake manifold technology uses the pressure
variations generated by the pulsating ow due to the periodic pis-
ton and valve motion to produce a charging effect. Various designs
for variable intake geometry have met with varying degrees of suc-
cess. The designs of the variable intake manifolds may be rather

0196-8904/$ - see front matter 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.enconman.2010.03.018
2240 M.A. Ceviz, M. Akn / Energy Conversion and Management 51 (2010) 22392244

complex and expensive to produce. Difculty in servicing and a

6
limited range of variable tuning may also be disadvantageous de- 7
sign results of variable intake manifolds. Studies on the intake
5
manifold design by regulating the runner length/volume for higher
engine performance, optimal fuel consumption and lower emis- 3
sions have signicantly increased in the last years. Some of the
4
studies carried out by researchers and engine manufacturers (i.e.
Mazda, BMW, Audi) [811] change the intake runner length; how- 11
ever, it is known that intake plenum affects seriously the charging 1
conditions [1214].
Previous work [12] on the effects of intake plenum on some en- 2 10
gine performance characteristics was carried out mainly on the
carbureted engine. The carburetor produces the fuel and air mix-
ture needed for the operation of the engine and is coupled to the
intake manifold which receives the mixture and distributes it to 9
the cylinders. Design of intake plenum is active on the quality of
airfuel mixture homogeneity in carbureted engine. In the engine
with multipoint injection systems using electronically controlled
8
fuel injectors has an intake manifold in which only the air ows.
The fuel is injected directly into the intake ports and the system
delivers a more evenly distributed mixture of air and fuel to each 1- Engine 7- Air flow meter
of the engines cylinders, which improves power and performance.
2- Hydraulic dynamometer 8- Muffler
Engines with multipoint injection have a separate fuel injector lo-
cated to each cylinder intake port. Such injection systems are ideal 3- Gravimetric fuel flow meter 9- Exhaust gas analyzer
for complying with the demands made on the air and fuel mixture
4- Additional plenums 10- Distributor
formation system.
In this paper, the effects of intake plenum length/volume varia- 5- Air surge tank 11- Fuel Injectors
tion on the engine performance were studied experimentally on a 6- Air flow meter probe (hot wire)
spark-ignited engine with multipoint injection systems using elec-
tronically controlled fuel injectors. The results were used for the Fig. 1. A schematic layout of test setup.
design studies of variable length/volume intake plenum. A new
plenum length control system was produced and explained in
detail. Table 1
Engine specications.

2. Materials and methods Engine type Ford MVH-418, fuel injected

Number of cylinders 4
Compression ratio 10:1
A schematic layout of the test setup used is indicated in Fig. 1.
Bore (mm) 80.6
The engine test bed was explained in the previous studies of the Stroke (mm) 88
author [12,15,16], which consists of a control panel, a hydraulic Displacement volume (dm3) 1.796
dynamometer and measurement instruments. The engine speci- Maximum power 93 kW at 6250 rpm
cation is summarized in Table 1. Maximum torque 157 Nm at 4500 rpm
Cooling system Water-cooled
The engine performance characteristics through the various
points were calculated as follows: the brake power (Pb) delivered
by the engine and absorbed by the dynamometer is,
At the beginning of experiments, the engine was run at a near
Pb 2pnT103 1 three-quarter opening position of the throttle valve in order to at-
tain near maximum speed. After the engine reached the steady-
where n is the crankshaft rotational speed (rev s1) and T is the tor- state conditions, the rst experiment was conducted with original
que (Nm). intake manifold. The engine was gradually loaded by the hydraulic
The thermal efciency of the engine is, dynamometer and test matrix consisted of eight speeds ranging
Pb from 1500 to 5000 rpm with 500 rpm steps for each plenum addi-
gth 2 tion operation. The experiments were repeated with separately
Q
16 mm (40 cm3), 32 mm (80 cm3), 48 mm (120 cm3) and 64 mm
Q is the total heat supplied by the fuel was calculated from, (160 cm3) plenum addition at the same engine speeds that were
attained by loading hydraulic dynamometer. The additional ple-
_f
Q CV m 3
nums had the geometries suitable for entrance of the original in-
where m_ f is the fuel consumption (kg sn1) and CV is the lower cal- take manifold, and located among the throttle valve and intake
oric value of the fuel (kJ kg1). manifold plenum.
The specic fuel consumption (sfc) is the fuel ow rate per unit
power output and calculated from, 3. Results and discussion
_f
m
sfc 4 Figs. 25 show the effect of the plenum length on the engine
Pb
performance characteristics; thermal efciency, specic fuel con-
_ f is the fuel consumption (g h1) and Pb is the brake power
where m sumption, torque and brake power, respectively. It can be seen
(kW). from Fig. 2 that the highest engine thermal efciency is observed
 M.A. Ceviz, M. Akn / Energy Conversion and Management 51 (2010) 22392244 2241

0.31
32 mm plenum addition

0.29 16 mm plenum addition

Thermal Efficiency (-)

No addition
0.27

0.25

0.23

0.21

0.19

0.17
1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 3500 4000 4500 5000 5500
Engine Speed (rpm)
Fig. 2. Variation of thermal efciency with engine speed for three different intake plenum volumes.

500
Specific Fuel Consumption (g/kW.h)

450
32 mm plenum addition
16 mm plenum addition
400
No addition

350

300

250
1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 3500 4000 4500 5000 5500
Engine Speed (rpm)
Fig. 3. Variation of specic fuel consumption with engine speed for three different intake plenum volumes.

90

80
Brake Torque (N.m)

32 mm plenum addition
70
16 mm plenum addition
60 No addition

50

40

30

20
1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 3500 4000 4500 5000 5500
Engine Speed (rpm)
Fig. 4. Variation of brake torque with engine speed for three different intake plenum volumes.

at 32 mm plenum addition up to 3000 rpm. Improvement in the
engine thermal efciency was especially at lower engine speeds.
At the experiments with the original engine manifold, engine ther-
mal efciency was 27.4%, whereas it increased to 27.9% and 30.9%
for 16 mm and 32 mm plenum addition at 1500 rpm, respectively.
There was also an increase in the engine thermal efciency at
the experiments carried out by 16 mm plenum addition up to
3000 rpm.
The highest engine thermal efciency was attained by using
16 mm plenum addition at about the engine speed range of
30004000 rpm. As the engine speed increases, the higher engine
thermal efciency was attained at lower length of intake plenum.
It is necessary to shorten of intake manifold length as the engine
speed increases because of the increase in the ow frequency as
discussed in introduction section. The results of this study agreed
well with early studies [811,17], which were about the effects
2242 M.A. Ceviz, M. Akn / Energy Conversion and Management 51 (2010) 22392244
22
20
Brake Power (kW)
16
18
14
12
10
1000 1500
Fig. 5. Variation of brake power with engine speed for three different intake plenum volumes.
of intake runner length. At high engine speeds as 45005000 rpm,
the original engine intake manifold must be used because of the
higher thermal efciency as seen from Fig. 2. It can be concluded
from these gures that it is important to use the variable length in-
take manifold plenum especially on urban and suburban areas
(roads) with the frequent stops and acceleration at starting
conditions.
Fig. 3 presents the specic fuel consumption characteristics
with the engine speeds. It can be seen from this gure that the fuel
consumption per engine power output was the lowest for the
engine speed range of 15003000 rpm by using 32 mm plenum
addition, and for 30004000 rpm range by using 16 mm plenum
addition. The higher engine speeds, it is necessary to use the origi-
nal engine manifold.
Figs. 4 and 5 present the engine brake torque and brake power
characteristics with different engine speeds. At original engine ple-
num experiments, the engine brake torque was 80.7 Nm, whereas
it increased to 84.2 Nm for 32 mm additional plenum experiments
at 1500 rpm. However, there was no signicant variation on the
engine torque for higher speeds from 2500 rpm. Engine brake tor-
que and brake power are controlled with the fuel injection strate-
gies of the engine electronic control unit by measuring some
operating parameters. In this study, the experiments were carried
out at the same engine speeds, but at the different load of hydraulic
dynamometer. Increase in the plenum length affected the amount
of fresh fuelair charge, and especially at lower speeds, to produce
the same level of engine brake power, the engine control unit con-
sumed less fuel because of the low engine load at the same engine
0.31
0.29
Thermal Efficiency (-)
0.27
0.25
0.23
0.21
0.19
0.17
1000 1500
Fig. 6. Variation of thermal efciency with engine speed for ve different intake plenum volumes.
32 mm plenum addition
16 mm plenum addition
No addition
2000 2500 3000 3500 4000 4500 5000 5500
Engine Speed (rpm)
speeds. Consequently, dominant effect was observed on the
parameters about the fuel consumption.
Figs. 6 and 7 present thermal efciency, specic fuel consump-
tion characteristics including the effects of much longer length of
intake plenum, as 48 mm and 64 mm (120 cm3 and 160 cm3).
While the engine performance characteristics improved by using
32 mm additional plenum especially at lower engine speeds, a re-
verse effect appeared at the experiments carried out by using
48 mm plenum addition, and this effect increased at 64 mm ple-
num addition conditions for all engine performance characteristics.
The experimental studies showed that the variation in the ple-
num length was not effective on engine exhaust emissions. How-
ever, the decrease in the fuel consumption per engine power
output decreases the total production of harmful exhaust emis-
sions. The original intake manifold and its plenum of the engine
used in the experimental studies were designed for high power
output at high engine speed. Therefore, using the extended plenum
was useful for lower engine speeds. However, it can be concluded
that the results will be different for a new designed intake mani-
fold, especially with a shorter length of intake plenum.
Fig. 8 illustrates a general views of the designed intake manifold
assembly which communicates the throttle valve and intake man-
ifold with a movable plenum volume. Design criteria of the pro-
duced system were determined by using the results of this study.
The throttle valve section moves linearly in response to drive sys-
tem to dene an effective plenum length. Flexible section accom-
modates the difference in length. The data acquisition card on a
personal computer measures continuously the engine speed from
64 mm plenum addition
48 mm plenum addition
32 mm plenum addition
16 mm plenum addition
No addition
2000 2500 3000 3500 4000 4500 5000 5500
Engine Speed (rpm)
 M.A. Ceviz, M. Akn / Energy Conversion and Management 51 (2010) 22392244 2243

500

Specific Fuel Consumption (g/kW.h)

450 64 mm plenum addition
48 mm plenum addition
32 mm plenum addition
400
16 mm plenum addition
No addition
350

300

250
1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 3500 4000 4500 5000 5500
Engine Speed (rpm)
Fig. 7. Variation of specic fuel consumption with engine speed for ve different intake plenum volumes.

driven to extend the exible section to increase the length between

A Plenum Throttle valve plenum and throttle valve. As the engine speed increases, the
throttle valve is driven to shorten the exible section. The system
Drive
therefore provides a cost effective variable intake manifold plenum
module
which will operate with different types of engines.

Flexible
section 4. Conclusions

From the results of this study, the following conclusions can be

Engine deduced:
Runner
1. The intake manifold plenum length/volume is highly effective
on engine performance characteristics especially with the fuel
consumption parameters for SI engines with multipoint fuel
injection system. The engine performance can be improved by
B using continuously variable intake plenum length.
Runner 2. Favorable effects of the variable length intake manifold plenum
appeared at high load and low engine speeds. Therefore, vari-
Engine
able length intake manifold plenum is useful especially on
Flexible section urban and suburban areas (roads) with the frequent stops and
Throttle valve acceleration at starting conditions.
3. It is necessary to determine the length of additional plenum
Drive
Plenum module components for another engine and intake system with sensi-
tive experimental studies.

Acknowledgement
Engine
This work has been supported by The Scientic and Technolog-
Runner ical Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK, Project No. 107M018).

C References

Fig. 8. (A) Front, (B) top and (C) solid view of intake manifold assembly.
engine shaft encoder. The drive system actuates the throttle valve
section based on the engine speed information from data acquisi-
tion card. In operation at low speeds, the throttle valve section is
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