JP7680870B2 - Automotive air intake system - Google Patents

Description

This invention relates to an air intake device that takes in air and sends it to an air cleaner in a vehicle.

An air cleaner is essential for an engine, and in cars that have an engine compartment covered by a hood at the front of the body, the air cleaner is placed in the engine compartment and draws air into the interior through an intake duct.

There are various shapes and arrangements of intake ducts, but Patent Document 1 discloses a configuration in which the intake port of the intake duct opens downward at a position in front of the radiator. In other words, while the upper end of the radiator is often attached to the upper radiator support, in Patent Document 1 the intake port of the intake duct is located in front of the upper radiator support and opens downward.

On the other hand, in order to improve the cooling capacity of the radiator, the space in front of the radiator is surrounded by support plates from the left and right, top and bottom, an example of which is disclosed in Patent Document 2.

JP 2020-050098 A JP 2013-226955 A

Placing the intake port of the intake duct in front of the radiator as in Patent Document 1 has the advantage of being able to take in air that has not been heated by engine heat, preventing a decrease in charging efficiency. In this case, when applied to an automobile in which the space in front of the radiator is surrounded by a seal plate as in Patent Document 2, the intake port of the intake duct opens downward from a communication hole provided in the upper seal plate.

There is no problem with sucking air into the intake duct from the upper seal plate, but when the inventors conducted experiments driving on a flooded road, they found that even though the flooded surface was deep enough to allow driving, water entered through the air vents in the front grille and rose toward the intake duct, blocking the intake.

In other words, the space in front of the radiator is surrounded by a seal plate, and water cannot escape to the left or right sides or below the radiator. Therefore, water that enters through the front grille is blocked by the radiator and overflows. The water that overflows upward flows into the intake port of the intake duct, blocking it.

The present invention was made against this background, and aims to avoid problems that occur when driving on flooded roads while retaining the advantages of opening the intake port of the intake duct downward and the advantages of providing a sealing member.

The present invention relates to
"A radiator is disposed at the front end of an engine room provided at the front of the vehicle body, the space in front of the radiator is surrounded by a seal member, and an intake duct is disposed above an upper seal member constituting the upper end of the seal member ,
The intake duct is formed with a main intake port that opens downward, and an auxiliary intake port that opens at a position higher than the upper seal member so that air can be taken in even if the main intake port is flooded .
In this basic configuration,
"The intake duct is formed with a forward-facing step facing the front of the vehicle body, so that the front wall of the intake duct is formed with a stepped shape, and the auxiliary intake port opens in a high portion of the front wall of the intake duct that is located behind the forward-facing step. "
It has the following characteristics:

In the invention of claim 2,
"An upper shield plate is disposed below the main suction port to prevent water from flowing directly into the main suction port."
This configuration prevents water spraying straight up from entering the building.
Therefore, in this case, the air flows backwards over the shielding plate and enters the intake duct, but in the case where a shielding plate is provided, in the present invention, the intake duct is formed with a main intake port that opens downward , and an auxiliary intake port that opens at a higher position so that air can be taken in even if the main intake port is flooded.

In the present invention, the number of auxiliary suction ports can be set arbitrarily. It is also possible to provide both an auxiliary suction port that opens forward and an auxiliary suction port that opens upward.

In the present invention, the space in front of the radiator is surrounded by a sealing member, and the intake port of the intake duct opens downward from the upper sealing member. Even if the water level rises suddenly when the water hits the radiator while driving on a flooded road and overcomes flood prevention devices such as a shield plate, blocking the main intake port, air can be taken in from the auxiliary intake port and supplied to the engine. This means that the advantages of preventing a decrease in charging efficiency and improving the cooling performance of the radiator are not lost, and driving on flooded roads can be maintained, ensuring high reliability.

In addition, since the structure is simple and does not require complex processing of the intake duct or the addition of new members, there are no problems such as increased costs, and the present invention is highly practical.
In addition, when traveling on a flooded road, the water that springs up from the main suction port is prevented from moving by the forward-facing step, so the air intake function is highly reliable. The effect of the upper shielding plate specified in claim 2 has already been described.

FIG. 2 is a partial perspective view mainly showing the arrangement of a radiator. FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing the arrangement of an intake duct. FIG. 1A is a partially cutaway plan view of the intake duct, and FIG. 1B is a front view of the intake duct. FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view taken along the line V-V in FIG. 2 . 13A and 13B are diagrams showing another example, in which FIG. 13A is a plan view of a second embodiment, and FIG. 13B is a front view of a third embodiment.

Next, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. In this application, the terms front-rear and left-right are used to specify directions, with the front-rear direction being the forward and backward directions of the vehicle, and the left-right direction being the width direction of the vehicle. In other words, the front-rear and left-right directions are directions seen from the driver's perspective. A front view is a view from the direction facing the driver.

(1) Basic structure Figure 1 shows the front end of an automobile, and an upper radiator support 1 and a lower radiator support 2 are arranged at the front end of the engine compartment covered by a hood (not shown), with a radiator 3 arranged between them. The radiator 3 has a group of vertically elongated water pipes, with an upper tank 3a (see Figure 5) connected to its upper end and a lower tank 3b (see Figure 1) connected to its lower end.

The upper radiator support 1 is in the form of a gutter that opens downward, and the upper tank 3a of the radiator 3 is partially inserted inside the upper radiator support 1. On the other hand, the lower tank 3b is held to the lower radiator support 2 by a bracket 4 shown in Fig. 1. Although not shown, a fan shroud equipped with a fan is disposed behind the radiator 3.

The space in front of the radiator 3 is surrounded by the left and right side seal plates 5 and the upper upper seal plate 6 that protrude forward from the radiator 3, and the lower radiator support 2 already described. Therefore, in this embodiment, the side seal plates 5, upper seal plate 6, and lower radiator support 2 constitute a seal member, and the upper seal plate 6 corresponds to the upper seal member described in the claims. The upper seal plate 6 is made of urethane, for example, but can also be made of steel plate.

The space in front of the radiator 3 is surrounded by seal plates 5, 6, etc., so the air that passes through the front grille 7, shown diagrammatically in FIG. 5, and heads toward the radiator 3 heads toward the radiator 3 without escaping to the left or right, or above or below the radiator 3. This increases the airflow density toward the radiator 3, improving the cooling capacity of the radiator 3.

The front ends of the side seal plates 5 are held by the front grille 7. The left and right long front frames 8 that make up the body frame pass through the left and right side seal plates 5. The upper seal plate 6 is lower in height than the upper radiator support 1, and the top surface of the upper seal plate 6 is roughly at the same height as the lower end of the upper radiator support 1.

As shown in Figures 2 and 3, an intake duct 9 made of synthetic resin is placed on top of the upper seal plate 6. The intake duct 9 has a horizontally long portion 10 that extends in the left-right direction above the upper seal plate 6, and a rearward-facing portion 11 that is connected to the base end (left end) of the horizontally long portion 10. Therefore, the intake duct 9 has an L-shape in a plan view.

The rearward-facing section 11 rises from the horizontal section 10 and changes direction to face backward. A joint duct 11a is connected to the rear end of the rearward-facing section 11, and the joint duct 11a is connected to the main body case (dirty chamber) of the air cleaner (not shown).

The tip of the horizontally elongated portion 10 of the intake duct 9 opposite the rearward-facing portion 11 is an intake portion 13 having a main intake port 12 that opens downward. A flange 14 that overlaps the upper surface of the upper seal plate 6 is formed at the lower end of the intake portion 13. In addition, the upper surface of more than half of the portion of the intake portion 13 closest to the tip is an inclined surface 13a that becomes lower toward the tip (toward the right end).

(2) Air Intake Structure A first forward step 15 located in approximately the left half and a second forward step 16 located in approximately the right half are formed on the front surface of the horizontally long portion 10 of the air intake duct 9, connected at approximately the same height. The protruding dimension of the first forward step 15 is greater than the protruding dimension of the second forward step 16, and the rear end of the first forward step 15 is recessed behind the rear end of the second forward step 16. Therefore, the front wall of the horizontally long portion 10 has a stepped structure, with a first upper front wall 17 located behind the first forward step 15 and a second upper front wall 18 located behind the second forward step 16.

In the first embodiment, one auxiliary suction port 19 is opened in a portion of the second upper front wall 18 near the tip. The auxiliary suction port 19 is formed as a round hole by drilling, but it may be formed as an oval or square hole during molding.

A front bracket 20 protrudes to the right from the suction section 13, and a rear bracket 21 protrudes to the left from the base end (left end) of the horizontal section 10. Slits 22, 23 that open toward the free ends are formed in both brackets 20, 21. As shown in Figure 2, the slit portion 22 of the front bracket 20 engages with the horizontal portion 24a of a metal fitting 24 that spans the upper radiator support 1 and the upper seal plate 6 and is fixed by a bolt or the like.

Although not shown in the figure, the slit 23 of the second bracket 21 provided at the base end of the intake duct 9 also engages with a metal fitting fixed to the upper radiator support 1 or the upper seal plate 6. Therefore, the intake duct 9 is held in place by the left and right brackets 20, 21 so that it cannot fall off (since the rear end of the intake duct 9 is connected to the main body of the air cleaner, the intake duct 9 is held in place by the two brackets 20, 21 so that it cannot fall off).

The main intake port 12 of the intake duct 9 is a rectangular hole that runs from left to right and is surrounded by a rectangular boss portion 25 that protrudes downward. As shown in Figure 3, the rectangular boss portion 25 fits from above into a rectangular communication hole 26 formed in the upper seal plate 6.

As shown in Figures 1, 3, and 5, an upper shielding plate 27 is fixed to the underside of the upper seal plate 6 as an example of a shielding means for preventing water from entering the communication hole 26 from directly below. That is, the upper shielding plate 27 has a flap 27a fixed to the underside of the upper seal plate 6 and a stopper plate 27b stepped down from the flap 27a, and an opening is provided between the front of the stopper plate 27b and the upper seal plate 6 through which air can flow backwards.

(3). Operation This embodiment has the above-described structure. Under normal conditions, a portion of the air that flows through the space of the front grille 7 toward the radiator 3 flows into the main suction port 12 of the intake duct 9 via the upper shielding plate 27 and the communication hole 26, and is sent to the air cleaner.

In addition, since the space in front of the radiator 3 is surrounded by the seal plates 5, 6 and the lower radiator support 2, the density of the air passing through the radiator 3 is increased, improving the cooling performance of the radiator 3 (in this embodiment, the space in front of the radiator 3 is surrounded from below by the lower radiator support 2, but it is also possible to surround it with a lower seal plate as a separate member).

On the other hand, when driving on a flooded road, if water passes through the front grille and flows toward the radiator 3, the space in front of the radiator 3 is surrounded by the seal plates 5, 6 and the lower radiator support 2, so even if the water is only deep enough to be halfway up the radiator 3, the force of driving can cause the water to hit the radiator 3 and overflow upward.

In this case, when the water level is low, as shown by reference numeral 30 in FIG. 5, the upper shielding plate 27 can prevent water from entering the communication hole 26 even if the water overflows. However, when the water level rises to a certain level, as shown by reference numeral 31, the water may reach the underside of the upper seal plate 6 in front of the upper shielding plate 27, pass over the upper shielding plate 27, and flow into the inside of the intake duct 9 through the communication hole 26. This may result in the main suction port 12 being blocked by water, even though the water depth is actually sufficient for travel.

However, in this embodiment, because the auxiliary intake port 19 is open in the second upper front wall 18, even if the main intake port 12 is blocked by water, air can be taken in through the auxiliary intake port 19, preventing the engine from stalling. This allows the vehicle to maintain driving performance on flooded roads. In addition, because the horizontal portion 10 of the intake duct 9 is lower than the rearward-facing portion 11, even if water gets into the horizontal portion 10, it will not reach the rearward-facing portion 11, and the space above the water can serve as an air passage to send air to the air cleaner.

In this embodiment, the tip (right end) of the intake duct 9 is connected to the fixing bracket 24 via the center bracket 20, which is located toward the rear of the intake section 13 and away from the auxiliary intake port 19 toward the tip (right side). Therefore, the provision of the auxiliary intake port 19 does not reduce the support stability (connection strength) of the center bracket 20, and the intake duct 9 can be firmly fixed.

Providing the upper shielding plate 27 as in the embodiment is preferable because water does not enter the inside of the intake duct 9 unless the water level becomes considerably high, thereby improving the water-blocking function. When the upper shielding plate 27 is provided, it is also possible to open the opening between the upper shielding plate 27 and the upper seal plate 6 facing backward or opening forward and backward.

(4) Other Examples The shape and arrangement of the auxiliary suction port 19 can be embodied in various ways. As an example, in the second embodiment shown in Fig. 6(A), one rectangular auxiliary suction port 19 is provided in the upper wall of the suction section 13 of the intake duct 9. On the other hand, in the third embodiment shown in Fig. 6(B), four auxiliary suction ports 19 are formed in the second upper front wall 18 in a row on the left and right.

When traveling on a flooded road, it is assumed that some of the water that flows upward from the main suction port 12 will flow and move along the inclined surface 13a of the suction section, but if the auxiliary suction port 19 is provided on the second upper front wall 18 as in the first and third embodiments, the movement of water that wells up upward is prevented by the second forward-facing step 16 (because the second forward-facing step 16 functions as a water stopper), and the water can be reliably prevented from reaching the auxiliary suction port 19. Therefore, it can be said that this has excellent reliability in terms of the air intake function.

Although the embodiment of the present invention has been described above, the present invention can be embodied in various other ways. For example, in the embodiment, a dedicated upper seal plate and side seal plate are provided as sealing members, but it is also possible to use members with other roles as sealing members. In addition, the shape of the intake duct does not necessarily have to be L-shaped in plan view as in the embodiment, and for example, a T-shaped shape in plan view with a rearward-facing portion rising from the left and right middle portions of the intake portion can also be adopted.

The present invention can be embodied in an air intake device for an automobile. Therefore, it can be used industrially.

REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 1 Upper radiator support 2 Lower radiator support constituting a lower seal member 3 Radiator 5 Side seal plate as an example of a side seal member 6 Upper radiator support as an example of an upper seal member 9 Intake duct 10 Horizontally elongated portion 11 Rearwardly facing portion 12 Main suction port 16 Second forwardly facing step portion 18 Second upper front wall 19 Auxiliary suction port 26 Communication hole 27 Upper shielding plate

Claims (2)

A radiator is disposed at a front end of an engine compartment provided at a front part of a vehicle body, a space in front of the radiator is surrounded by a sealing member, and an intake duct is disposed above an upper sealing member constituting an upper end of the sealing member ,
The intake duct is configured to have a main intake port that opens downward and an auxiliary intake port that opens at a position higher than the upper seal member so that air can be taken in even if the main intake port is flooded,
The intake duct is formed with a forward step portion facing the front of the vehicle body, so that the front wall of the intake duct is formed with a stepped shape, and the auxiliary suction port is opened in a high part of the front wall of the intake duct located behind the forward step portion.
An automobile air intake device. An upper shield plate is disposed below the main suction port to prevent water from flowing directly below into the main suction port.
2. An air intake device for an automobile according to claim 1.

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