An Experimental Study on a Flowfield Characteristics in a Throttle Valve of SI Engine

Experimental investigations on the flow characteristics of downstream region of a butterfly valve, which is used in SI engine, have been conducted according to Reynolds number and valve angle. Measurement programs of the flowfield using x-type of hotwire anemometry include the mean and fluctuating velocity, turbulnet intensity, shear stress, power spectrum and pressure loss coefficient. Experimental results show that flow characteristics and independent of relatively high Reynolds number; 60,000 and 80,000. It is also seen that streamwise mean velocities have relatively large velocity gradient around the butterfly valve with increasing the valve opening angle and this trend appears even in the far downstream region. The distributions of turbulent intensity and shear stress show irregular behavior regardless of the valve opening angle and those of the case of the valve opening angle of 45°are the largest. The pressure loss coefficient of the body surface of the throttle valve increases mildly with the increase of Reynolds number and increases rapidly with the reduction of the valve opening angle.