Simulated Analysis of a Motorbike High Performance Lubrication Circuit

As a result of this increased specific power demand all of the engine components that require lubrication are exposed to a broader range of more extreme operating conditions.

Hence an optimized design of a race engine lubricant circuit is becoming much more important, due to the necessity to have its effectiveness with a rational management of its own energy.

In this paper, Authors analyse a motorbike high performance lubrication circuit by a simulation methodology, already used and validated for other high performance engine types. It will be illustrated a simulation model, made by mono-dimensional (1D) code, which allows to study all lubricant circuit behaviour, analyzing parameters that are not easy to evaluate experimentally and that, too often, designers don't take into account during engine development. These parameters allow the designer to study the whole lubricant circuit, highlighting eventual critical working conditions.

The model was build up by a commercial code AMESim ^® , trade mark of LMS ^® . This code, by its own libraries, permits to the user to simulate the lubrication circuit and its components, taking into account all the problems concerning pressure drops, flow rate and heat exchange that characterize engine lubricant circuit behaviour. An useful instrument for lubricant circuit was been implemented to the aim of analyzing a complex architecture of an innovative 4 cylinder race motorbike high performance engine.

This paper, then, represents an interesting step towards the growth of automotive engineering knowledge that is very important during the study and the development of a new engine.