Exhaust muffler design and analysis using a boundary element method based computer program

Typical automotive muffler designs contain complex internal components such as extended inlet/outlet tubes, thin baffles with eccentric holes, internal connecting tubes, perforated tubes, perforated baffles, flow plugs and sound-absorbing materials. An accurate performance prediction for highly complicated muffler designs would greatly reduce the effort in fabricating and testing of multiple design iterations for engineers. This paper discusses the use of a component-based computer simulation tool for design and analysis of exhaust mufflers. A comprehensive computer program based on the Direct Mixed-Body Boundary Element Method was developed to predict the transmission loss characteristics of muffler systems. The transmission loss is calculated by an improved four-pole method that does not require solving the boundary element matrix twice at each frequency, and hence, it is a significantly faster approach when compared to the conventional four-pole method. The numerical prediction of several muffler configurations shows very good agreement with measured results including the effects of temperature and mean flow.