Acoustic Performance Design of Automotive Muffler

*​
Asutosh Prasad​, and Raj C Thiagarajan
* Corresponding author, ATOA Scientific Technologies Pvt Ltd, 204, Regent Prime, 48 Whitefield Main
Road, Whitefield, Bengaluru 560066, India, www.atoa.com, c​orp.hq@atoa.com

Abstract with huge cost to mankind by making environmental

noise pollution. Automotive engines are the root cause
The effects of automotive engine emission and of traffic noise pollution. Hence mufflers are essential
exhaust noise on the natural environment has become a to reduce the engine noise before it interact with
critical obstacle for living beings. Exhaust system is surround atmosphere.
known to be a vital component of the automotive 1.2 Engine Noise
emission and environmental noise pollution. Exhaust
The Internal Combustion Engine is the heart of a
noise from an Internal Combustion engine is one of the vehicle. The explosion during combustion process
root cause for traffic noise pollution. Acoustical generates loud sound pressure which must be extracted
Engineering of automotive muffler or silencer has to atmosphere without affecting the engine
gradually reduced the noise pollution level in an performance. This sound pulse propagates through air
effective manner. Automotive mufflers are engineered medium to our ear. The noise produced from the
to attenuate noise level, meeting desired emissions and internal combustion engines can increase beyond
sound quality based on pollution regulatory control. normal sound level leading to hearing loss and mental
stress.
Therefore automotive muffler design has become an
essential part of current research and development. The 1.3 Exhaust Mufflers
design validation of mufflers has always been a big
challenge for Engineers due to it’s complexity, hence it Exhaust Mufflers are the mechanical devices
is an active area of research and development in recent engineered to attenuate engine noise before it reaches
years. Automotive Mufflers need to be designed to the surrounding atmosphere. The integrated sound
considering the Sound Wave propagation and Noise cancellation phenomena of expansion chambers inside
cancellation physics behind it. Design and production exhaust muffler makes it possible to attenuate high
frequency noise and generate sounds below critical
of desired muffler is an iterative process followed by
level. Though mufflers can reduce high frequency
built and test method. Recent research on automotive noise, it gradually decreases engine performance by
emissions made it possible to design and develop generating heavy back pressure. Hence it is essential to
desired muffler numerically without consuming time design a muffler which reduces engine noise without
and cost. This paper deals with the numerical affecting the performance. ​ Design and analysis of
experiments for early prediction of muffler mufflers is a complex work that affects noise attributes,
performance at the design stage. In this experiment a emission and fuel efficiency of an internal combustion
Reactive Muffler is developed and validated engine. For suitable design of a muffler, Transmission
loss (TL) and Insertion Loss (IL) are the key
numerically compared to traditional built and test
parameters that need to be derived for further
process. experiments. Among these two, Transmission Loss
(TL) is more preferred and widely used for predicting
1.0 Introduction both muffler and engine performance. Though the
muffler design is an iterative process by trial and error
With increased demands of passenger cars in methods, in recent years the advances in Numerical
developing countries, the automotive manufacturers are simulation has made it possible to save production time
facing several challenges from Pollution control board and costs by reducing prototype building and physical
on severe noise pollution. Automobiles are the major testing. In this paper, numerical design of a reactive
part in development of any country, which makes muffler is considered for better noise reduction and
regular transportation easier. Though automobiles engine performance.
provides better transportation, it comes

Excerpt from the Proceedings of the 2015 COMSOL Conference in Pune

1.3.1 Reactive Muffler Delta type thin baffles are patterned gradually to
separate the sound wave and flow at nose and mix
Reactive Mufflers are designed to reflect the sound them at tail for extra sound reduction. Since the flow
waves produced by the engine so that the sound waves direction are opposite to each other, they tends to
partially cancel themselves out. This phenomena is cancel the sound effectively. The inlet and the outlet
called as the principle of destructive interference. The correspond to connections in direction of engine and
initial sound waves produced from engine noise are free air, respectively.
guided to produce another equal and opposite reflected
sound wave inside expansion chambers. These waves
when collides with each other produce a destructive
interference leading to sound cancellation. A Reactive
muffler consists of several chambers connected with
tubular pipes to produce sound reflection at every
junctions. The impedance mismatch and reflection of
the incident sound wave makes it possible to send back
the acoustic energy to the source, hence partially
reduce the engine noise inside the muffler. Though the
reactive mufflers are designed to reduce engine noise,
they are prone to generate heavy backpressure. It has
been found that the reduction in noise is inversely
proportional to the backpressure. Because of the back
pressure the volumetric efficiency decreases and
specific fuel consumption increases leading to low Figure 1.​
CAD Model of Automotive Muffler
engine performance. Hence an optimised muffler
design is to be implemented so that there is maximum 2.2 Meshing
noise reduction and minimum possible back pressure
without affecting engine performance. An optimum Meshing is defined as a process to discretize an
reactive muffler can be designed by special infinite geometric domain into finite numbers of
arrangement of expansion chamber and pipes, which is elements and nodes. In this investigation the tetrahedral
an iterative process followed by traditional “Built & mesh elements are used. The maximum element length
Test” methods. The traditional “Built & Test” methods is calculated considering the wavenumber and
of mufflers are expensive and time consuming to obtain wavelength. For Finite Element Analysis it is necessary
desired results. With recent development in Computer to maintain four elements per each wavelength.
Aided Design and Computer Aided Engineering, it is
possible predict muffler performance by virtual Wavelength calculation
simulations. c
λ= f
2.0 Numerical Modeling & Simulation Where
This paper describes the prediction of mufller λ = Wavelength of Sound
performance by Numerical modeling methodology. c = Velocity of Sound = 343 m/sec
The Numerical model of a muffler is developed and f = Maximum Frequency = 2000 Hz
simulated using COMSOL Multiphysics.
343
λ = 2000 = 0.1715 m
2.1 Model Definition According to theory, there has to be four elements per
In this experiment a CAD model of automotive wavelength
muffler is designed using commercial CAD software Maximum element length
and imported to COMSOL for numerical simulation.
The muffler model consists of five separate resonating
Wavelength 0.1715
chambers divided by thin walls. The resonating 4 = 4 = 0.042875 m
chambers are connected by tubular pipes for easy
passage of exhaust gases and better sound reflection.
=
​ 42.875 mm

Excerpt from the Proceedings of the 2015 COMSOL Conference in Pune

 2.4 Boundary Conditions

The boundary conditions implemented in this

numerical models are of three different types. Sound
hard (wall) boundary condition is applied to the outer
walls of the muffler, separating walls between the
resonating chambers and the walls of the tubular pipes.

(− ) .n = 0
▽p
⍴

A combination of ​ incoming and outgoing plane

wave is assumed at inlet of the muffler.

(− ) .n =
▽p
⍴
iω
ρc p − 2iω
ρc p0
.n

In the above equation “​ p​ ”​

0​ denotes the applied
“ i” ​
outer pressure and ​ is the imaginary unit. Similarly
an outgoing plane wave is set at the outlet of the
muffler.

(− ▽p ⍴ ) .n = iωρc p

2.5 Transmission Loss

Transmission loss (TL) is defined as the difference

between the power incident on a muffler and that
transmitted downstream into an anechoic termination.
Figure 2.​
Meshed Model of Automotive Muffler It describes the accumulated decrease in intensity of a
waveform energy as a wave propagates outwards from
2.3 Governing Equation a source, or as it propagates through a certain area or
through a certain type of structure. Transmission loss is
The numerical problem is constructed and solved independent of the source and requires an anechoic
in frequency domain using the Pressure Acoustics, termination at the downstream end.
Frequency Domain interface of COMSOL
Multiphysics. A modified Helmholtz equation for the The following equation is used to calculate the
acoustic pressure “p​” is used to solve the numerical Transmission Loss (TL) in the reactive muffler design.
problem.
T L = 10 log ( )
P in

▽. − ( ▽p
⍴ )− ω2p
c2⍴ =0 Where Pin​and Pout
P out
​ denotes the acoustic effects at
the inlet and outlet of the muffler respectively. The
Where ρ is the density, c is the speed of sound and acoustics effects at the inlet and outlet are derived
ω is the angular frequency. using the following equations.

A numerical parametric study is assigned to solve (P 0) 2 |P c| 2

the mathematical model in a frequency range of 100 Hz P in = ∫ 2ρc dA , P out = ∫ 2ρc dA
to 2000 Hz. ∂Ω ∂Ω

Excerpt from the Proceedings of the 2015 COMSOL Conference in Pune

3.0 Result & Discussion

The performance of the reactive muffler design is

analysed numerically and simulation results are
represented graphically as bellows. ​Figure.3 visualizes
the acoustic pressure field, ​ Figure.4 represents the
sound pressure level and ​ Figure.5 plots isosurface of
pressure in the muffler at a frequency of 1350 Hz.

Figure 5.​
Isosurface plot of Pressure field at 1350 Hz

The calculated results from the parametric study

of muffler design are presented graphically as belows.
Figure.6 plots the sound pressure level curve as a
function of frequency. ​ Figure.7 reveals the damping
effects in the muffler and in ​
Figure.8 the incident and
exhaust sound pressure values are compared
respectively. ​
A minimum exhaust Sound Pressure of
2.5 dB at tailpipe, respective to higher Transmission
Figure 3.​
Acoustic Pressure field at 1350 Hz Loss of 90 dB is obtained at 1350 Hz of frequency.

Figure 4.​
Sound Pressure level at 1350 Hz Figure 6.​
Sound Pressure level.

Excerpt from the Proceedings of the 2015 COMSOL Conference in Pune

 cost respectively. Numbers of muffler can be designed
and performance calculations can be performed in
virtual environment before physical production. ​ The
numerical model can further be used to optimize
muffler­design, for extreme sound cancellation and
high engine performance in automobiles.

5.0 Acknowledgement

​
This research was supported by R & I Department
of ATOA Scientific Technologies, Bengaluru, India.
The author would like to thank the technical team, ​who
provided insight and expertise that greatly assisted the
research.

6.0 References

[1] M,L. Munjal, Acoustic of Ducts and mufflers, New

York:Wiley­Interscience(1986)
Figure 7.​
Transmission Loss (TL).
[2] J. Igarashi and M.Toyama 1958 Aeronautical
Research Institute, University of Tokyo, Report no.339,
223­241 Fundamental of acoustical silencers

[3] Shital Shah, et al., “A Practical Approach towards

Muffler Design, Development and Prototype
Validation”, SAE International, vol. 021, pp. 1­16,
2010.

[4] Paritosh Bhattacharya, et al., “Design of Reactive

Muffler for Study on the Noise Level and Performance
of a Two cylinder Four Stroke 16 H.P Diesel Engine”,
2013.

[5] Sabry Allam, “Acoustic Modeling and Testing of

Advanced Exhaust System
components for Automotive Engines”, Doctoral thesis,
KTH, Sweden, 2004.

Figure 8.​
Sound Pressure level comparison.

4.0 Conclusions

In this experiment the performance of a reactive

muffler model is analysed numerically. The numerical
modelling methodology helped us to predict
performance of a complex muffler design without
traditional built and test methods. Muffler performance
investigation by numerical methodologies shows
potential to increase ​ productivity of muffler
manufacturers , reduces the production time and

Excerpt from the Proceedings of the 2015 COMSOL Conference in Pune

Excerpt from the Proceedings of the 2015 COMSOL Conference in Pune