International Journal of Engineering and Technical Research (IJETR)

ISSN: 2321-0869, Volume-3, Issue-3, March 2015

Vibration Analysis of an Automotive Silencer for

Reduced Incidence of Failure
Krishnal Bhangale, Prof. Rajkumar Shivankar, Prof. P. K. Sharma

medium companies with a limited number of resources. For

Abstract The Engine exhaust is the major source for prediction of radiated noise from engine exhaust systems it
contributing noise in automobile. There are many challenges in needs a model of the acoustic behavior of the intake/exhaust
designing the muffler system as size, engine back pressure, noise system and a model of the engine cycle source parameters.
level, emission norms and also cost. Sufficient insertion loss at These models are analyzed in the frequency domain or in the
engine frequency and first few harmonics are important. Recent
time domain. However, the evaluation of the source
efficient muffler systems are designed considering linear plane
wave theory using transfer matrix method. Development of
characteristics remains a challenge. Now recently
fibrous material strands that is used in hot exhaust system Sathyanarayana and Munjal (2000) developed a hybrid
without binders has led to use of combination of muffler and approach to predict radiated noise that uses both the time
exhaust system. Particulate matter filters and air cleaners also domain analysis for the engine and the frequency domain
modified acoustically. For all these to happen exhaust muffler analysis for the mufflers. For the frequency analysis of the
designers need simple and fast modeling tool, especially at the muffler they have used the transfer matrix method. Also in
initial stages. FEM and Boundary element methods are time other recent studies new algorithms that can reduce the
consuming. This paper is about plane wave based models such as computation time in predicting the performance of mufflers
transfer matrix method that has advantage of building fast
have been reported (Dowling and Peat in 2004). However, it
prototype for muffler design, find out transmission loss and
compared with experimental setup. is required a previous identification of sub-systems of
two-port acoustic elements before applying the algorithm. In
Index Terms Automotive Muffler, Engine Exhaust Noise, this paper, the fundamentals of the Transfer Matrix Method
Muffler/Silencer, Noise Level, Transmission Of Sound, are summarized and the method is applied to different muffler
Transmission loss, Vibration Induced Noise. configurations for the prediction of Transmission Loss. A set
of measurements was taken and the results are compared with
I. INTRODUCTION the numerical predictions.
Major contribution for creating noise in automotive engines is
II. NEED FOR ANALYSIS
the exhaust system. To reduce noise Mufflers/ silencers are
used. Mufflers are commonly used in a wide variety of
applications Mufflers attenuate the noise levels carried by the 1.1 Introduction
fluids and radiated to the outside atmosphere by the exhausts.
TO comply the environmental legislations mufflers designers The Automobile silencer under study belongs to a popular
have to use high performance and that much reliable 2-Wheeler manufacturer in India with the rated HP of the
techniques. Number of techniques is available to for engine up to @13.5HP. The exhaust gases coming out from
designing, evaluating and testing of mufflers. Empirical, engine are at very high speed and temperature. Silencer has to
analytical and numerical techniques have been used and reduce noise, vibrations. While doing so it is subjected to
proved reliable under controlled conditions. To design thermal, vibration and fatigue failures which cause cracks. So
complete muffler system is a very complex task. Particular it is necessary to analyze the vibrations which would further
performance like back pressure, insertion loss, size, help to pursue future projects to minimize cracks, improving
reliability, and important parameter cost are to consider. life and efficiency of silencer.
Numerical techniques, such as the Finite Element Method
(FEM) and the Boundary Element Method (BEM) have 1.2 Aim: -
proven to be convenient for complex muffler geometries.
Although these methods are applicable to any muffler 1. To analyze the heat-flow through the inlet port of the
configuration, when the silencer shape becomes complex, the silencer within the exhaust system through the
three-dimensional FEM requires a very large number of exhaust port open to atmosphere. This might help to
elements and nodes. This becomes a long and lengthy hence minimize the fatigue failure or thermal creep (
tedious data preparation. Although high speed computational through redesign) manifested by Heat induced due to
and storage machines exist, the use of FEM or BEM for the impinging and pulsating flow of hot gases during
muffler design is restricted to trained personnel and is its passage through the tail end of the Automotive
commercially expensive, in particular for preliminary design Exhaust System (Silencer)
evaluation. Most muffler manufacturers are small and
2. Minimize the incidence of cracks on the end covers
Manuscript received March 09, 2015. or other members of silencer, improving the usable
Krishnal Bhangale, NRIIST Bhopal life-span of the silencer
Prof. Rajkumar Shivankar, NRIIST Bhopal
Prof. P. K. Sharma, NRIIST Bhopal
2.3 Objective:-

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 Vibration Analysis of an Automotive Silencer for Reduced Incidence of Failure

1. Identify and study using software tools (for 4) Viewing the results during post-processing.
simulation/ analysis), the nature and characteristics 5) Interpretation over the results.
of vibrations. 6) Recommendations
2. Evaluate the influence of the vibrations over the
design of the silencer The purpose of the exhaust system is simple: to channel the
3. Review the existing design and consider improvement fiercely hot products of fuel combustion away from the engine
for negating the harmful influences of the or generator and the car's occupants and out into the
phenomena atmosphere. The exhaust system has a secondary purpose- to
reduce the amount of noise made. The exhaust gases leave the
2.4 Industrial relevance:-Every exhaust system of an engine at incredibly high speeds. Moreover, with the opening
industrial or automobile system where hot gases discharge and shutting of the exhaust valves with each cycle of
from the combustion chamber into the surrounding combustion for each cylinder, the gas pressure alternates from
atmosphere at relatively high velocities has a silencer as an high to low causing a vibration- and hence sound. Silencer has
integral part of the system. The Automotive silencer attempts to muffle the vibrations of the exhaust gases, reduce their
to reduce the audible noise levels in the proximity of the velocity and thus reduce the amount of noise emitted from the
system to acceptable limits for human comfort. While doing engines. The pulsating flow from each cylinder's exhaust
so, it has to withstand stresses induced due to heat and other process of an automobile petrol or diesel engine sets up
factors such as vibration, fatigue etc.As such, any pressure waves in the exhaust system-the exhaust port and the
improvement made to the silencer would directly enhance the manifold having average pressure levels higher than the
function of silencer with marked improvement in its effective atmospheric. This varies with the engine speed and load. At
life-span. higher speeds and loads the exhaust manifold is at pressures
substantially above atmospheric pressure. These pressure
2.5 Approaches, Techniques :- waves propagate at speed of the sound relative to the moving
[1]. Numerical approach:- exhaust gas, which escapes with a high velocity producing an
This is global approach, based on the loading definition, the objectionable exhaust boom or noise. A suitably designed
modeling of the constitutive law and of the damage and a exhaust silencer or muffler accomplishes the muffling of this
failure criterion. This approach is applied on cylinder heads exhaust noise. Practically, the exhaust gas mass is forced
and on exhaust manifolds submitted to transient thermal through the pipe after leaving the engine. Its momentum
loading and permits to predict the cracked area as well as the forces the change in the direction of motion, or in the
lifetime. expansion or contraction of the end pipe. This gas produces
[2]. Computational approach:- some resonance in such frequency range that might cause
This presents a computational approach for the lifetime fatigue failure to the exhaust pipe when the resonance exists
assessment of structures. One of the main features of the work continuously. Without the consideration of these cases, the
is the search for simplicity and robustness in all steps of the development of the exhaust system will be incomplete.
modeling, in order to match the proposed method with
industrial constraints. The proposed method is composed of a III. MUFFLER DESIGN
fluid flow, a thermal and a mechanical finite element
computation, as well as a final fatigue analysis. 3.1 Introduction
[3]. Experimental set up:- There are two main types of mufflers designs namely as
With the use of experimental set-up we can analyze the absorptive and reactive. Generally automotive mufflers will
fatigue and vibrations for silencer. In lab silencer would be have both reactive and absorptive properties the reactive or
tested to give results required. Of above approaches reflective mufflers uses destructive interference, the
computational approach will give results more close to phenomenon to reduce noise. Meaning of partial interference
practical values through simulation/ analyses. The technique is when engine fires and blow out noise that time noise is
would deploy any of the following software tools: Fluent, reduced itself partially by designing. It is the theory of wave
Star CCM, CFD++, Patran/ Nastran, ANSYS, MSC fatigue or length in the phase and out of phase. Sound waves in phase
any compatible CAE software. that is phase angle between them is 0 degree then the noise
will increase whereas if they are out of phase i.e. 180 degrees
2.6 Benefits of using a CAE software:-
then sound intensity will reduced automatically. Hence partial
It has, intuitive graphical interface with direct access to CAD
reduction of noise can be achieved. . Reflection is occurring
geometry, advanced meshing, integration with other
where there is a change in geometry or an area discontinuity.
compatible software for solving. It is optimized for large scale
In reactive muffler (as shown in Figure 1), commonly series of
systems, assemblies, dynamics and NVH simulations. It has
resonating and expansion chambers that are designed to
graphical interface with direct access to CAD geometry, most
reduce the sound pressure level at certain frequencies. The
suitable for fatigue analysis. Here, we shall employ software
inlet and outlet tubes are kept offset to some extent and have
tools like CFD++, Star or Fluent for analysis limited to the
perforations that allow sound pulses to scatter out in
flow of flue gases.
numerous directions inside a chamber resulting in more
destructive interference.
2.7 Methodology:-
Reactive mufflers are used widely in car exhaust
1) Creation of Geometry for silencer.
systems where the exhaust gas flow and hence noise emission
2) Importing the geometry for meshing.
varies with time scale and also where the power is more. They
3) Solving for the meshed model with constraints
have the ability to reduce noise at various frequencies due to
and boundary conditions.

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 International Journal of Engineering and Technical Research (IJETR)
ISSN: 2321-0869, Volume-3, Issue-3, March 2015
the numerous chambers and changes in geometry that the only valid up to the cut off frequency, where higher order
exhaust gasses are forced to pass through The down side to modes occur. Generally for all mufflers maximum
reactive mufflers is that larger backpressures are created, transmission loss occurs at odd multiples of a quarter
however for passenger cars where noise emission and wavelengths.
passenger comfort are highly valued reactive mufflers are
smooth less vibrant hence ideal and can be seen on most
passenger vehicles on our roads today.

Fig. 3.3 Quarter wavelength

Silencing element that is used generally for intake and

exhaust mufflers is the expansion chamber. It consists of an
Fig. 3.1 Reactive automotive muffler inlet tube, an expansion chamber and an outlet tube as shown
in Figure 4. The inlet and outlet tubes may be coaxial known
An absorptive or dissipative muffler, as shown in Figure 2, it as a concentric expansion chamber or offset known as an
uses the absorption phenomenon where kinetic energy of the offset expansion chamber.
firing was absorber in porous material. Sound waves are
reduced as their energy is converted into heat energy in the
absorptive material. A typical absorptive muffler consists of a
straight, circular and perforated pipe with uniform pattern of
holes that is encased in a larger steel housing. Between the
perforated pipe and the casing is a layer of sound absorptive
material like porous material that absorbs some of the
pressure pulses.

Fig. 3.4 Simple Expansion Chamber

Due to sudden expansion and contraction of the sound wave

there is change of phase of waves and they nullify effect of
peak sound. Attenuate high frequency sound is reduced to
minimum so well as it beams straight through the muffler.
Here back pressure and insertion loss can be controlled easily
by changing diameter and length of pipe. Change in length
cause whirling pattern of sound. Back pressure is maintained
by the diameter of pipe and also both inlet, outlet pipe
Fig. 3.2 Absorptive automotive muffler diameters.
Absorptive mufflers have relatively less backpressure then
reactive mufflers; this is because of the porosity in the
material and property of material. This material which is used
in perforated sheet and steel housing also reduces the
emissions produced by fuel burning. There are Nox and Sox
which are emitted through engine and they are required to be
controlled.

3.3 POSSIBLE MUFFLER DESIGNS

There are many different designs available for muffler and

they are used for different purpose as automobile,
locomotives, guns, generators etc. Let us see various muffler
designs and their key features one by one. Automotive Fig. 3.5 Sound pressure wave propagation.
mufflers generally have a circular or elliptical cross section. A
circular shaped cross section is very good in a vehicle as it Irrespective of the features there are some drawbacks also.
delays the onset of higher order modes Most formulas that are The length of the chamber should be at least 1.5 times the
used to predict the transmission loss of a muffler assume plane diameter. Similar to a standard expansion chamber is
wave propagation. The properties of the following designs are the extended inlet and outlet expansion chamber,

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 Vibration Analysis of an Automotive Silencer for Reduced Incidence of Failure

where the inlet and outlet tubes are extended into the dramatically especially for the higher frequencies.
expansion chamber as shown in Figure 6. The benefit of such
a design is that part of the chamber between the extended pipe
and the sidewall acts as a side branch resonator therefore
improving the transmission loss. The greater the protrusion
into the muffler the greater the transmission loss however the
inlet and outlet tubes should maintain a separation space of at
least 1.5 times the diameter of the chamber to ensure the
decay of evanescent modes.

Fig. 3.8 Comparison of a muffler with and without

absorptive material

A side branch resonator as seen in Figure 9 is a muffling

device used to control pure tones of a constant frequency. It
generally takes the form of a short length of pipe whose length
Fig. 3.6 Expansion chamber with an extended inlet and is approximately a quarter of the wavelength of the sound
outlet frequency to be controlled. A Helmholtz resonator is similar
Noise can be further attenuated by the addition of porous to a side branch resonator the only difference being that there
material inside the expansion chamber whilst maintaining the is a backing volume joined to the connecting orifice.
same muffler dimensions. Sound waves loose energy as they
travel through a porous medium. The absorptive material
(porous material) causes the fluctuating gas particles to
convert acoustic energy to heat. The main benefit of a straight
through absorptive silencer, as shown in Figure 7, is that
insignificant backpressure is generated therefore improving
vehicle performance. The perforated tube is used to guide the
exhaust flow and avoids the creation of turbulence as is found
in an expansion chamber.

Fig. 3.9 Side branch resonator

Fig. 3.10 Helmholtz resonator

If it is found that the un muffled exhaust noise spectrum has

noticeable peaks a resonating chamber (concentric resonator)
Figure 11, to target these specific resonant frequencies. The
resonating chamber style of muffler is extremely efficient in
providing noise control for a specific frequency band;
however the attenuation band is very narrow. This
characteristic is not very useful in automotive exhaust system
where attenuation is needed over all frequencies. A side
branch resonator may be however used in addition to a
muffler to treat a particular problem frequency If a broader
Fig. 3.7 Straight through absorption muffler
and improved attenuation spectrum is required multiple
resonators should be used. Each chamber is designed to
The material used to guide the exhaust flow, yet allow sound
reduce a specific frequency being an odd multiple of a quarter
waves to escape, is usually perforated steel with an open area
wavelengths apart. Attenuation is increased as the number of
of approximately 20%. An absorptive silencer produces a
chambers increase although the addition of a third chamber
more consistent transmission loss (TL) curve as shown in
only provides a small increase in attenuation. If a tube
Figure 8. The expansion chamber TL curve is typically domed
connects the chambers, the longer the tube the greater the
in shaped and as can be seen the absorptive material not only
attenuation achieved. This type of muffler is useful when
irons out these humps but also increases transmission loss

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 International Journal of Engineering and Technical Research (IJETR)
ISSN: 2321-0869, Volume-3, Issue-3, March 2015
space is limited and low frequency performance is required modes can be neglected. Using the impedance analogy, the
the volume and shape of the resonating chamber govern its sound pressure p and volume velocity at positions 1
performance capabilities. Generally as the volume of the (upstream end) and 2 (downstream end) in Fig. 1 (x=0 and
resonating chamber increases the resonant frequency reduces. x=L, respectively) can be related by
p1=Ap2 + Bv2-------------- (1)
v1 = Cp2 + Dv2------------ (2)

where A, B, C, and D are usually called the four-pole

constants. They are frequency-dependent complex quantities
embodying the acoustical properties of the pipe (Pierce,
1981).

Fig. 3.11 Resonating chamber muffler

IV. MUFFLER MODELING

4.1 Muffler Modeling by Transfer Matrix Method Fig.4.1. Plane wave propagation in a rigid straight pipe
transporting a turbulent
Mufflers are commonly used in a wide variety of Incompressible mean flow.
applications. Industrial flow ducts as well as internal
combustion engines frequently make use of silencing
elements to attenuate the noise levels carried by the It can be shown (Munjal, 1975) that the four-pole constants
fluids and radiated to the outside atmosphere by the for non-viscous medium are
exhausts. Restrictive environmental legislation require that
silencer designers use high performance and reliable
techniques. Various techniques are currently available for the A=exp(-jMkcL)cosKcL--------- (3)
modeling and testing of duct mufflers. Empirical, analytical B=j(c/S)exp(-jMkcL)sinkcL,--(4)
and numerical techniques have been used and proved reliable C=j(S/c)exp(-jMkcL)sinkcL,- (5)
under controlled conditions. Design of a complete muffler D= exp(-jMkcL)coskcL -------- (6)
system is, usually, a very complex task. Each element is
selected by considering its particular performance, cost and
its interaction effects on the overall system performance and where M=V/c is the mean flow Mach number (M<0.2), c is the
reliability. Numerical techniques, such as the Finite Element speed of sound (m/s), kc=k/(1M2) is the convective wave
Method (FEM) and the Boundary Element Method (BEM) number (rad/m), k=/c is the acoustic wave number (rad/m),
have proven to be convenient for complex muffler is the angular frequency (rad/s), is the fluid density
geometries. Although these methods are applicable to any (kg/m3), and j is the square root of 1. Substitution of M=0 in
muffler configuration, when the silencer shape becomes Eqs. (3) to (6) yields the corresponding relationships for
complex, the three-dimensional FEM requires a very large stationary medium.
number of elements and nodes. This results in
lengthy and time-consuming data preparation and 4.3 Transfer Matrix Method (TMM)
computation. Although high speed computational and storage It can be observed that Eqs. (1) and (2) can be written in an
machines exist, the use of FEM or BEM for muffler design is equivalent matrix form as
restricted to trained personnel and is commercially expensive, q1=T1 q2---------------------- (7)
in particular for preliminary design evaluation. Most muffler where qi = [pi i ]T is a vector of convective state variables
manufacturers are small and medium companies with a (i=1,2) and
limited number of resources. They thereby require fast and A B
low cost methods for preliminary muffler design. T1 = --------- (8)
C D
4.2 Theory Plane Wave Propagation
For plane wave propagation in a rigid straight pipe of is the 22 transfer matrix, defined with respect to convective
length L, constant cross section S, and transporting a turbulent state variables. This matrix relates the total sound pressure
incompressible mean flow of velocity V (see Fig. 1), the and volume velocity at two points in a muffler element, such
sound pressure p and the volume velocity anywhere in the as the straight pipe discussed in the previous section. Thus, a
pipe element can be represented transfer matrix is a frequency-dependent property of the
as the sum of left and right traveling waves. The plane wave system. Reciprocity principle requires that the transfer matrix
propagation model is valid when the influence of higher order determinant be 1. In addition, for a symmetrical muffler A and

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 Vibration Analysis of an Automotive Silencer for Reduced Incidence of Failure

D must be identical. In practice, there are different elements

connected together in a real muffler, as shown in Fig. 2.
However, the four-pole constants values of each element are
not affected by connections to elements upstream or
downstream as long as the system elements can be assumed to
be linear and passive. So, each element is characterized by
one transfer matrix, which depends on its geometry and flow
conditions. Therefore, it is necessary to model each element
and then to relate all of them to obtain the overall acoustic
property of the muffler.
V. FUTURE SCOPE

1. Transmission Loss From TMM

2. CAD model of Silencer.
3. Verification by Ansys.

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q0 = T0q0--------------- (9)
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q0 = T0T1q2------ (10) A Venting System With Multi-Chamber Mufflers By Ga Metho. Journal
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Now, at a point n, the vector of convective state variables is
related to the vector of classical state variables (for stationary
medium) by means of the linear transformation

qn = Cn un---------- (12)
where

the sound pressure and volume velocity for stationary

medium, and Cn is a non singular 22 transformation matrix
given by

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