MIE.35 – FSAE Throttle Body Design

• Qais Abdeh
• Juan Cerna
• Josue Gomez
• Kyle Nieciak
• Jonathan Ruiz
• Antonio Salerno

The need for a redesigned throttle body for the FSAE team was crucial as the previous one lacked a linear torque curve, idle adjustment, good throttle control, and proper fitment. In order to design the throttle body specifically for the vehicle’s engine, design specifications were used, and it was made sure that they fell within the guidelines of the FSAE rulebook for 2023.
Through extensive research on multiple throttle body designs, the scope was narrowed down to a butterfly valve, a barrel, and finally a slider throttle body. Each throttle body had its advantages and limitations, but ultimately, the slider throttle body was eliminated prior to carrying out simulations on it due to it being prone to sticking open at wide open throttle which makes it unsafe for the team to implement. With two throttle body designs left, barrel and butterfly valve, computational fluid dynamic simulations were performed to find the throttle body that would be optimal for the FSAE team. The simulations were done using ANSYS with specialized research licenses in order to ensure a fine enough mesh for the parts which yields more accurate results. It was concluded that the barrel throttle body flowed better and had less restriction than the butterfly valve. With a decision made on what type of throttle body will be used, design specifications were then introduced.