Simulation and experimental validation of the flow field at the entrance and within the filter housing of a production spark-ignition engine

•The fluid dynamic behaviour of the filter housing of a production ICE is studied.•A 3D CFD analysis is performed and an experimental validation is proposed.•The adopted CFD model appears very accurate for complex industrial applications.•The effect of the filter element on the mean flow is investigated.

The paper aims to analyse the flow field at the entrance and within the filter housing of a production four-cylinder, spark-ignition engine during the intake phase. To this purpose a computational fluid dynamic (CFD) analysis was carried out adopting a finite volume code, while an experimental activity was performed at a steady flow rig to validate the computational model.The comparison between numerical data and experimental measurements showed a good agreement and it demonstrated the capabilities of the proposed CFD model to predict in detail the flow field within a complex production automobile component that largely influences the efficiency and reliability of actual internal combustion engines (ICEs).