Designing of Fuel Tank with Increased Capacity and Improving Its Location for Better Stability of Three Wheeled Vehicle

Abstract

In The Automotive Industries, Fuel Tank Is An Essential Part For Vehicles Operation Along With Other Functional Systems. It Is A Container Specially Designed As An Integral Part Of The Fuel System For A Specific Car Model And Used To Carry & Supply Fuel To The Engine Via Fuel Filter, Fuel Pump. In Ethiopia, It Is Observed That Due To Smaller Size Of The Fuel Tank Of Three Wheeled Vehicles More Frequent Visit To Fuel Filling Station Leading To Wastage Of Time In Waiting In Long Queues Near Fuel Station. Also, The Current Location Of The Fuel Tank Observed To Be Causing Some Stability Problems. General Feedback Is Obtained From The Interviews Of The Drivers, Vehicle Owners And Technical Persons. The Data Surveyed At Bishoftu And Adama On February2023 Are Collected, Analyzed And Organized And The Compromises Are Made Along With The Vehicle Weight And The Amount Of Fuel Tank Capacity Needed. Then The Method, The Location,Mounting Techniques And Stability Analysis Of The Three Wheeled Vehicle Are Performed. Hence, Mounting New Designed Part Is Carried Out At The Bottom Of The Passenger Seat. In Doing So, A Fuel Tank Mounted At Its Bottom Optimizes The Center Of Gravity Since The Height Of Center Of Mass Of The Vehicle Lowered By 30mm To The Ground. Therefore, The Vehicles Rollover ResistanceCan Be Increased. This Study Made A New Design Of Fuel Tank For Three-Wheeler Vehicles In Which Its Capacity Increased Twice The Amount Of The Existing Fuel Tank And Keeps The Vehicles Rollover Stability. The Methods That Are Used To Model The Modified Fuel Tank Design And Analysis Of This Thesis Work Involved Solidworks Software And Ansys Fluent Computational Fluid Dynamics (Cfd) Software For Sloshing Analysis. The Cfd Results Of Comparative Sloshing Analysis At Partially Filled (50% Fill Level) Of Fuel Tank With And Without Baffles Are Performed And Conclusions Are Carried Out. Therefore, Due To The Combined Acceleration Motion, Parameters Defining Stability Of The Tank As Well As The Vehicle Such As Sloshing Forces, Vertical Forces And Roll Moments Computational Simulation Are Carried Out At The Existing, A New Fuel Tank With Baffle And Without Baffles Systems. A Baffle Of A Fuel Tank Presented The Largest Benefit In Reducing The Sloshing Impact. Finally After Analysis Performed, Mileages Of Fully Filled Existing Fuel Tank And New Fuel Tank Are About 136 Km And 272 Km Respectively. To Fill Once The Driver Waits For Average Of 5 Hours And Works For About 2 Days For The Existing Fuel Tank And 4 Days For The New Fuel Tank.