Artigo Completo:

The engine air filter service interval is one of the bottle necks for heavy and medium duty vehicles maintenance interval. Thus, by increasing its replacement interval, the total ownership costs can be reduced. As desirable side effect, the waste disposal related to the used air filter element change is also positively affected. Based on a systemic approach and numerical simulation tools, the complete vehicle air induction system was redesigned. Computer Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations supported the redesign of air/dust pre-separator devices at the air inlet duct and filter element housing. Filter element design, assembling methods and paper bellows parameters were also optimized to further increase filter element dust holding capacity. Overall system performance was evaluated in laboratory tests. In order to confirm the results obtained on laboratory would be valid for field conditions, test standard procedures were compared to data collected in real life severe application. This paper presents numerical simulations and physical tests results of the redesigned system in comparison to traditional air induction systems, bringing breaking through concepts and considering validation as close as real life use conditions.