Recent Advances in Signal Processing, Computational Geometry and Systems Theory

Finite Element Analysis for Reactive and Dissipative

Rectangular Muffler
OVIDIU VASILE
Department of Mechanics
Politehnica University of Bucharest
Splaiul Independentei 313, 060042 Bucharest
ROMANIA
vasile@cat.mec.pub.ro

NICOLETA GILLICH
Department of Electrics and Informatics
“Eftimie Murgu” University of Resita
P-ta Traian Vuia 1-4, 320085 Resita
ROMANIA
n.gillich@uem.ro

NEAGOE LAURENTIU
Regional Authority for Civil Engineering
P-ta 1 Decembrie 1918, nr. 7, 320067 Resita
ROMANIA
neagoelaurentiu@yahoo.com

Abstract: - The paper describes the pressure-wave propagation in a muffler for an internal combustion engine in
case of a lined muffler with rectangular cross section resonator chamber. The approach is generally applicable
to analyzing the damping of propagation of harmonic pressure waves. The paper purpose is to show finite
elements analysis of both inductive and resistive damping in pressure acoustics. The main output is the
transmission loss for the frequency range 50 Hz–3000 Hz.

Key-Words: - absorptive muffler, transmission loss, geometry of muffler, glass wool

1 Introduction Reflective mufflers are best suited for the low

A silencer is an important noise control element for frequency range where only plane waves can
reduction of machinery exhaust noise, fan noise, and propagate in the system, while dissipative mufflers
other noise sources involving flow of a gas, so that with fibers are efficient in the mid-to-high
these devices should classify in specific norms and frequency range. Dissipative mufflers based on flow
regulations [1]. losses, on the other hand, work also at low
In this paper, we will examine two cases of frequencies. A typical automotive exhaust system is
reactive and dissipative muffler, using FEM – finite a hybrid construction consisting of a combination of
element method. The detailed design procedures for reflective and dissipative muffler elements.
mufflers and absorbent materials are available in the The reflective parts are normally tuned to
literature [2], [3] and [7]. remove dominating low-frequency engine
There are two basic types of mufflers: harmonics while the dissipative parts are designed
•Reflective (or reactive) mufflers - those that to take care of higher-frequency noise.
reflect acoustic waves by abrupt area expansions or In the industry, exhaust systems are typically
changes of impedance. analyzed with nonlinear 1D gas-dynamics codes.
•Dissipative mufflers - mufflers based on Such codes, however, do not capture 3D acoustic
dissipation of acoustic energy into heat through effects such as higher-order duct modes, and the
viscous losses in fibrous materials or flow-related modeling of fibrous materials is not satisfactory. In
(resistive) losses in perforated pipes. practice, there is therefore a need to use linear
acoustic models of exhaust and intake systems to

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 Recent Advances in Signal Processing, Computational Geometry and Systems Theory

enable detailed modeling and optimization of the

acoustic response, at the cost of neglecting nonlinear
effects.
The expansion chamber muffler consists of one
or more chambers or expansion volumes which act
as resonators to provide an acoustic mismatch for
the acoustic energy being transmitted along the
main tube.
Reactive silencers consist typically of several
pipe segments that interconnect a number of larger
diameter chambers or rectangular cross section
resonator chamber. These silencers reduce the
radiated acoustical power primarily counting on to
the impedance mismatch, that is, by allowing the
acoustical impedance discontinuities to reflect Fig. 1. Geometry of the lined muffler with
sound back toward the source. rectangular cross section
The noise from an exhaust system consists of
three components: pulsation noise and flow The exhaust fumes enter through the left pipe
generated noise coming from the orifice of the and exit through the right pipe. In the first version of
muffler outlet and shell noise coming from the shell the model the chamber is empty (Solution 1). In the
of the muffler. Shell noise may be limited by using a second version it is lined with 15 mm of absorbing
stiffer or damped shell, while flow generated noise, glass wool (Solution 2).
such as turbulence and vortex shedding may be
limited by minimizing geometrical discontinuities
(edges, sharp bends etc) [8]. 3 Domain Equations
Minimizing pulsation noise, caused by the valves
This model solves the problem in the frequency
opening and closing inside the IC engine, is the
domain using the time-harmonic Pressure Acoustics
focus of this paper and this is obtained by designing
application mode. The model equation is a slightly
the internal parts of the muffler in such a way that
modified version of the Helmholtz equation for the
the most critical part of the frequency spectrum is
acoustic pressure, p:
attenuated.
The use of a silencer is prompted by the need to
 ∇p  ω 2 p
reduce the noise radiated from a source but in most ∇ ⋅  −  − 2 = 0 (1)
applications the final selection is based on some  ρ  cs ρ
trade-offs among the predicted acoustical
performance, the mechanical performance, the where ρ is the density, cs equals the speed of sound,
volume/weight ratio, and the cost of the resulting and ω gives the angular frequency.
system. In the absorbing glass wool, the damping enters
Most silencers are subject to volume/weight the equation as a complex speed of sound, cc = ω/kc,
constraints, which also influence the silencer design and a complex density, ρc = kc Zc/ω, where kc is the
process. In addition, the initial purchase/installation complex wave number and Zc equals the complex
cost and the periodic maintenance cost are other impedance. For a highly porous material with a rigid
important factors that influence the silencer skeleton, the well-known model of Delany and
selection process. Bazley estimates these parameters as functions of
frequency and flow resistivity.
Using the original coefficients of Delany and
2 Model Definition Bazley [2], the expressions are
The muffler—schematically depicted in Figure 1—
consists of a resonator chamber with centred  ρ f 
−0.7

exhaust pipe included at each end (Fig. 1). The k c = k a ⋅ 1 + 0.098 ⋅  a  −
  Rf  
radius of input and output tube is 50 mm, both (2)
−0.595
150 mm length. Resonator chamber is a square cross  ρ f  
section of side 200 mm and 600 mm length. − K a i ⋅ 0.189 ⋅  a  
  Rf  

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 Recent Advances in Signal Processing, Computational Geometry and Systems Theory

 ρ f 
−0.734
 5 Results and Conclusions
Z c = Z a ⋅ 1 + 0.057 ⋅  a  − We apply the required boundary conditions and then
  Rf  
(3) perform the meshing for free tetrahedral option with
 ρ f 
−0.732
 0,25 x – direction scale.
− Z a ⋅ i ⋅ 0.087 ⋅  a  
  Rf  

where Rf is the flow resistivity, and where ka = ω/ca

and Za = ρa ca are the free-space wave number and
impedance of air, respectively. You can find flow
resistivities in tables. For glass-wool-like materials,
Bies and Hansen [3] give an empirical correlation

3.18 ⋅ 10 −9 ⋅ ρ ap
1.53

Rf = 2
(4)
d av

where ρap is the material’s apparent density and dav

is the mean fiber diameter. This model uses a rather
lightweight glass wool with ρap = 12 kg/m3 and Fig. 2. Meshing of the lined muffler with
dav = 10 µm. rectangular cross section

Figure 2 show the 3D meshing of lined muffler

4 Boundary Conditions with rectangular cross section.
The boundary conditions are of three types: The following equation defines the attenuation

At the solid boundaries, which are the outer (in dB) of the acoustic energy (or transmission loss),
walls of the resonator chamber and the pipes, the dw [5, 6, 10]:
model uses sound hard (wall) boundary
conditions: w 
d w = 10 log o  (8)
 wi 
 ∇p 
 −  ⋅ n = 0 (5)
Here wo and wi denote the outgoing power at the
 ρ 
outlet and the incoming power at the inlet,
respectively. You can calculate each of these

The boundary condition at the inlet involves
quantities as an integral over the corresponding
a combination of incoming and outgoing plane
surface:
waves: 2
p
n⋅
1
ρ0
∇p + ik
p
+
i
p0 2k
∆T p = wo = ∫ 2ρc dA (9)
∂Ω s
(6)
 i p 
=  ∆ T p0 + [1 − (k ⋅ n)]ik 0 e −ik (k⋅r )
 2k ρ0  p 02
wi = ∫ 2ρc dA (10)
In this equation, p0 represents the applied outer ∂Ω s

pressure, ∆T is the boundary tangential Laplace

operator, and i equals the imaginary unit [4]. This In the Figure 3 is plot the result of acoustic
boundary condition is valid as long as the frequency pressure levels for selected geometry of the muffler,
is kept below the cutoff frequency for the second absolute pressure (Fig. 3a) for the case of an empty
propagating mode in the tube. muffler without any absorbing material and total

At the outlet boundary, the model specifies acoustic pressure field (Fig. 3b) with a layer of
an outgoing plane wave: lining on the chamber’s upper and lower walls.

1 k i
n⋅ ∇p + i p+ ∆T p = 0 (7)
ρ0 ρ0 2k

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 Recent Advances in Signal Processing, Computational Geometry and Systems Theory

a. a.

b.
b.
Fig.3. Acoustic pressure levels for at 1050 Hz:
a). Absolute pressure; b). Total acoustic pressure Fig. 4. Isosurface – Total acoustic pressure field
field
Figure 5 shows the result of attenuation of the
In Fig. 3b can be seen that there are sharp muffler, a parametric frequency study for the case of
variations of color - so a small change in pressure an empty muffler without any absorbing material
and low pressure is present, where we can deduce (Solution 1) and attenuation with a layer of lining on
that the resonance phenomenon does not appear as the chamber’s upper and lower walls (Solution 2).
in figure 3a. The plot shows that the damping works rather well
In the Figure 4 is plot the result of isosurface of for most low frequencies with the exception of a
total acoustic pressure field for selected geometry of few distinct dips where the muffler chamber
the muffler for the case of an empty muffler (see displays resonances.
Fig. 4a) without any absorbing material and with a At frequencies higher than approximately
layer of lining on the chamber’s upper and lower 1050 Hz, the plot’s behaviour is more complicated
walls (see Fig. 4b). and there is generally less damping. This is because,
For both cases, the graphical representation for such frequencies, the muffler supports not only
(Fig. 4) corresponds to frequency of 1050 Hz. longitudinal resonances but also cross-sectional
An isosurface is a three-dimensional analog of propagation modes. Not very far above this
an isoline. It is a surface that represents points of a frequency a whole range of modes that are
constant value (in this case it is pressure but it may combinations of this propagation mode and the
be and depending on temperature, velocity or longitudinal modes participate, making the damping
density) within a volume of space of muffler; in properties increasingly unpredictable.
other words, it is a level set of a continuous function The glass-wool lining (Solution 2) improves
whose domain is 3D-space. For the representation in attenuation at on almost all the frequencies studied
Figure 5 was set a total of 15 levels. [9].

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 Recent Advances in Signal Processing, Computational Geometry and Systems Theory

Fig. 5. Comparative attenuation (dB) of muffler as a function

This model uses the Pressure Acoustics physics [2] M. A. Delany and E. N. Bazley, Acoustic
interface of the Acoustics Module. This interface properties of fibrous absorbent materials, Appl.
has the Delany-Bazley [6] coefficients built in. Acoust., vol. 3, pp. 105–116, 1970.
Therefore, the only damping parameter you need to [3] D. A. Bies and C. H. Hansen, Flow resistance
supply is the flow resistivity. The parametric solver information for acoustical design, Appl.
provides results for a range of frequencies. The Acoust., vol. 14, pp. 357–391, 1980.
software computes integrals in the power [4] D. Givoli and B. Neta, High-order non-
expressions using boundary integration coupling reflecting boundary scheme for time-dependent
variables, and it plots the resulting attenuation waves, J. Comp. Phys., vol. 186, pp. 24–46,
versus frequency. 2003.
It should be noted, however, not always possible [5] M.V. Predoi, Finite Elements Simulations of
to use a sound-absorbing material, due to various Noise Damping in a Muffler, Romanian Journal
factors such as high temperature, high speed. of Acoustics and Vibration, vol VI,
We are still concerned, in the near future, the issue2/2009, pp. 71-74, ISSN 1584-7284.
verification method with finite element modeling [6] COMSOL Multiphysics, User’s Manual,
results determined in real conditions. COMSOL A.B. 2008.
[7] Munjal, M.L., Acoustics of Ducts and Muffler,
Wiley, New York, 1987.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT [8] K.S. Andersen, Analyzing Muffler
The authors acknowledge the support of the Performance Using the Transfer Matrix
Managing Authority for Sectorial Operational Method, Proceedings of the COMSOL
Programme for Human Resources Development Conference 2008 Hannover, 2008.
(AMPOSDRU) for creating the possibility to [9] Bratu M., Ropotă I., Vasile O., Dumitrescu O.,
perform these researches by Grant Muntean M., Research on the absorbing
POSDRU/89/1.5/S/62557. properties of some new types of composite
materials, Romanian Journal of Materials,
2011, vol. 41 (2), pp. 147-154, ISSN 1583-
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Cziple, Legal aspects concerning the muffler by boundary element method approach,
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in urban areas, Journal of Environmental ReşiŃa – Fascicula de inginerie, Anul XVII,
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pp. 465-473

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