Abstract
The air filters applied in utility terrain vehicles (UTVs), which are usually driven on dust-prone unpaved roads, employ a two-stage air cleaner that increases the lifespan of the filter element by using a pre-cleaner stage in the air filter intake housing to centrifugally separate any dust particles contained in the intake air before sending the cleaned air to the primary filter. Thus, maximizing the centrifugation capacity by properly modifying the geometry of the intake air passage in the filter housing is important to ensure engine performance and filter lifespan. The geometry of the pre-cleaner air passage was therefore optimized in this study in terms of the inclination angle and air passage location angle using a computational flow analysis to maximize the centrifugal removal of dust particles. The resulting overall pre-cleaner efficiency and overall pre-cleaner efficiency per pressure drop were then used as the objective functions to maximize the dust particle removal capacity according to centrifugation speed. The method demonstrated in this study for optimizing air filter intake geometry can be used to improve and prolong the performance of UTV engines.
Highlights
To calculate the overall pre-cleaner efficiency η using Equations (3) and (4), the primary filter element was modelled as a porous material, and the analysis was conducted under the condition that only flow resistance applies and the unseparated dust particles pass through the porous material
This allowed the efficiency to be calculated by distinguishing the dust particles caught in the evacuator located in the pre-cleaner during operation from those that exited toward the primary filter element through the air passage
As can be seen from the figure, some of the 10 μm dust particles, which are the lightest under the given operating and design conditions, were caught in the evacuator but others exited toward the primary filter element through the air passage, whereas all of the relatively heavy 50, 100 and 150 μm particles were filtered by the evacuator due to the sufficient centrifugal force
Summary
Because they are usually used for agricultural purposes or mountain activities on unpaved roads, utility terrain vehicles (UTVs) are operated in environments with a large amount of soil dust compared to vehicles traveling on paved roads. This results in relatively more soil dust being sucked into the intake system, thereby sharply reducing the air filter lifespan. Only a minimum amount of dust is removed in the secondstage primary filter element. The effective removal of dust is critically important in realizing the desired engine performance and acceptable primary filter lifespan
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