Bonfring International Journal of Industrial Engineering and Management Science, Vol. 8, No.
2, April 2018 3
Design and Fabrication of Car Exaust Muffler
A.Ajaykanth, G.Aravinth, C.Bharath, G.Gokulnath and R.Govindaraj
Abstract--- IC engines are one of the major sources of
noise pollution. Mufflers are generally found with exhaust
system. After the combustion the high intensity gas pressure
through the muffler chamber and some of the gases
reflected again passes through the combustion chamber it is
called back pressure. It creates vacuum pressure in
combustion chamber and decreases the engine
performance. Reduction of weight, increasing the capability
of noise absorption from the muffler with minimal back
pressure can increase the performance of the engine. The
objective of this study is to optimize noise level of engine
and reduce back pressure. This project mainly targets on
designing a muffler to reduce the noise and back pressure.
Based on new muffler design parameters, a model is
fabricated and tested.
I. INTRODUCTION
Since the invention of the internal combustion engine in
the latter part of theNineteenth century, the noise created by
it has been a constant source of trouble to the environment.
Significantly, the exhaust noise in terms of pressure is about
10 times the other entire noise combine. The design of
muffler has been a topic of great interest for many years
and hence a great deal of understanding has been gained
Hence good design of muffler should give the best noise
reduction and offer optimum back pressure for the engine.
The performance of an exhaust system is assessed by
different factors; the most important factors are
backpressure and the insertion loss of the system.
A.Ajaykanth, Department of Mechanical Engineering, SNS College of
Engineering, Coimbatore.
G.Aravinth, Department of Mechanical Engineering, SNS College of
Engineering, Coimbatore.
C.Bharath, Department of Mechanical Engineering, SNS College of
Engineering, Coimbatore.
G.Gokulnath, Department of Mechanical Engineering, SNS College of
Engineering, Coimbatore.
R.Govindaraj, Assistant professor, Department of Mechanical
Engineering, SNS College of Engineering, Coimbatore.
DOI:10.9756/BIJIEMS.8363
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Figure 1.1: Exhaust System
High backpressure in an exhaust system affects the
performance of the engine, decreasing power and increasing
fuel consumption. Exhaust noise can be classified into two
categories pulsating noise from the engine, and flow noise
from high speed exhaust gasses flowing though and exiting
the exhaust system. Pulsating noise is generated when
exhaust gases at high pressure are released from the engine
cylinders through the exhaust valves. Flow noise is created
by exhaust gas flow oscillating and impacting inside the
exhaust system. There are five different design criterion of
mufflers design; they are acoustical criterion, aero
dynamical criterion, mechanical criterion, geometrical
criterion and economical criterion. The acoustical criterion
specifies the minimum noise reduction required from the
muffler as a function of frequency.
The mechanical criterion specifies the materials from
which the muffler is fabricated. So that it is durable and
requires less maintenance. The economical criterion is vital
in the market place. A muffler must be inexpensive as
possible while designing initial cost as well as operating
cost must be considered. The various dimensions of the
muffler are varied keeping some dimensions constant and
then the effect on Backpressure is observed. It can be seen
that the backpressure varies nonlinearly and it cannot be
predicted by any equation. It can be concluded that the
backpressure value is high for small diameters as compare
to bigger diameter holes even if the porosity is double.
Introduction to Muffler
Muffler is defined as a mechanical device used to
deplete the noise generated by an internal combustion
engine. The muffler not only reduces noise , but also
diminishes vibrations .It was invented by „Milton‟ and
„reeves‟ and they have taken patent in1897 at „US
PATENT‟ with application number:582485 Have you ever
heard noise sent out by an internal combustion without the
use of a muffler? It gives lot of discomfort for the
Bonfring International Journal of Industrial Engineering and Management Science, Vol. 8, No. 2, April 2018
passengers and the people around .The signal generated by
the internal combustion engine has a very high frequency
because the exhaust gases released into the atmosphere has
approximately a pressure of 7 bar and 2000k temperature
.Whenever the pressurised waves enter into the atmosphere
at regular intervals of time ,it creates „undesirable sound‟.
Not only that, it also creates a vibratory motion on the
engine because of continuous pulses based on Newton‟s
third law (action= - reaction).Here action is the high
pressurised waves which are released from an IC engine
and reaction is the vibration of the engine. If you change
the speed of the engine that automatically effects the
frequency generation .The variation of speed is directly
proportional to the frequency.
F=N*n/120 for 4-stroke engine
F=N*n/60 for 2-stroke engine
F=frequency generated=speed of the engine in rpm, n=
number of cycles
Generally, in ideal condition, the frequency generated is
73HZ and the frequency of the varies between 50HZ to
800HZ. In practicality, that range of continuous frequency
is not possible. So that is the reason why mufflers are
introduced. By introducing the mufflers (silencer), the
vibrations are diminished and the frequency of the muffler
is also reduced to audible range. Because of the deployment
of the muffler, the whole system has become more efficient
which is always paramount .The muffler acts as the
mediator between the engine and the atmosphere .So that is
the reason why the gases are cooled and neutralized before
into the system. The muffler also reduces the pressure of
the exhaust gases before releasing into the atmosphere and
therefore, most of the aberrations are reduced. The muffler
is a hollow cylindrical object which has 2 ports (one inlet
and outlet).At the inlet, pressurised gas enters into the
muffler chamber and by the time the gas comes out both the
pressure and noise are significantly depleted. The silencer
can only reduce noise, but muffler can reduce both noise
and vibration and which is why muffler is more
advantageous. In this unit, we have discussed about
mufflers and in the second unit, types of mufflers are
discussed.
Exhaust muffler grades
Muffler grades Insertion loss (IL)
Industrial/Commercial 15 to 25 dB
Residential grade 20 to 30 dB
Critical grade 25 to 35 dB
Super critical grade 35 to 45 dB
Types of mufflers
Absorptive muffler
Reactive muffler
Absorptive muffler:
The absorptive muffler is a special type of muffler used
for reduction of noise and vibrations for a pleasure ride.
Construction:
The absorptive muffler has three main parts:
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It has a hollow cylinder held circumferentially and the
holes are held concentrically like oil and air filter. The outer
surface is completely closed with noise absorbing material.
The best absorbing material is glass fiber or cotton. Over
the absorbing material, a protective layer is placed which
gives extra protection not only to the absorbing material but
also to other parts.
Working:
When high noise signal enters into one side of the parts,
it automatically travels to the other side. It travels in the
form of waves. While travelling, the waves collide against
the internal surface and touch the sound absorbing material
through holes and eventually noise is depleted.
Advantages:
Back pressure is never a problem.
Smooth operation
Simple in manufacturing and design.
Maintenance cost is less.
Very efficient at the end.
Disadvantages:
Cost is average, but is high compared to reactive
muffler.
High pressure wave directly enters into the
atmosphere.
HC and other effluent gases enter directly into the
atmosphere.
Reactive muffler:
Reactive muffler is a special type of muffler which
demotes noise and pressure both at the same time is called
reactive muffler.
Construction:
The reactive muffler has two perforations (perforation is
hollow cylinder tube whose one is held
circumferentially).These are placed in the chamber with the
help of support beams or plates. The reactive muffler
contains several parts like resonating chamber, expansion
chamber and tail pipe. Expansion takes place in expansion
chamber and the outer space is used for fitting tail pipe.
Working:
In this design, there is no direct connection between
inlet and outlet ports. The gas which enters the inlet port
will encounter the perforators and expand. After that, the
gas gets expanded in the expansion chamber and in the next
step enters into outlet perforator and eventually comes out
from the tail pipe. While travelling the entire distance,
pressure and noise gets significantly diminished.
Advantages:
Design is simple
Affordable cost
Particles like HC,CO are easily deposited inside
the chamber.
Pressure can be reduced to atmospheric pressure.
Not very heavy compared to absorptive muffler.
Maintenance cost is less.
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Disadvantages: exhaust system in the mid to high frequency ranges

Because of high back pressure , wear and tear
takes place at the exhaust valve.
Extreme vibrations are produced.
Engine performance gets reduced.
Operation is rough at high speed.
Factors Influencing The Design of Muffler
While designing any product there are some factors that
need to be considered. Here are some factors which are
vital in designing a muffler.
Adequate insertion loss
Back pressure
Size
Durability
Desired sound
Cost
Shape & style
Tail pipe design
Engine speed
Number of cylinders utilized
Figure 1.2: Types of Mufflers
II. LITERATURE REVIEW
The literature review focuses on the literature study
done on the review of related journal papers, articles
available as open literature.
Vijay M Mundhe which depicts, muffler is an
important part of an engine system used in exhaust system
to reduce exhaust gas noise level. The literature review
reveals that the exhaust gas noise level depends upon
various factors. Muffler geometry, extension in inlet and
outlet valves, number of whole perforations and its
diameter are the factors which affects noise from engines.
The objective of this study is to reduce exhaust gas noise
level.
Ujjal Kalita represents a bibliographical review of the
muffler used in automobile industry. Use of sound
absorption material in an exhaust system dissipates the
energy of the acoustic waves into heat and also store heat
energy from the exhaust stream. Using an absorptive
material can greatly increase the transmission loss of an
Dr. Suresh P. M. et al whose paper deals with the
experimental modal analysis, also known as modal analysis
or modal testing, deals with the determination of natural
frequencies, damping ratios, and mode shapes through
vibration testing. The exhaust muffler in an automobile
plays an integral role in reducing the sound of the
automobile, as well as the ride itself. In order to maintain a
desired noise and comfortable ride, the modes of a muffler
need to be analyzed.
Jigar H. Chaudhari et al which represent the review on
different types of mufflers and design of exhaust system
belonging engine has been studied. The object of this study
is deciding muffler design which one reduces a large
amount of noise level and back pressure of engine. In
designing, there is different parameter which has to taken in
to the consideration. These parameters affect the muffler
efficiency. Absorptive muffler design uses only absorption
of the sound wave to reduce the noise level without messing
with the exhaust gas pressure.
Rahul D. Nazirkar et al whose paper explain an
automotive exhaust system the noise level, transmission
loss & back pressure are the most important parameters for
the driver & engine performance. In order to improve the
design efficiency of muffler, resonating of the exhaust
muffler should be avoided by its natural frequency. The
design of muffler becomes more and more important for
noise reduction. The solid modeling of exhaust muffler is
created by CATIA-V5 and modal analysis is carried out by
ANSYS to study the vibration and natural frequency of
muffler. So as to differentiate between the working
frequencies from natural frequency and avoid resonating.
M. Rahman et al which describes the absorptive
muffler is the classic dissipative design, deriving its noise
control properties from the basic fact that noise energy is
effectively “absorbed” by various types of fibrous packing
materials. That is, as the sound waves pass through the
spaces between the tightly packed, small diameter fibers of
the absorptive material, the resulting viscous friction
dissipates the sound energy as small amounts of heat
III. DESIGN PARAMETER OF MUFFLER
The muffler consist of 3 chamber
Inlet Chamber
Center Core
Outlet Core
Total Length:-362mm
Width:-184mm
Height:-115mm
Inlet Chamber-54mm
Outlet Chamber-52mm
Wall Thickness-1mm

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Bonfring International Journal of Industrial Engineering and Management Science, Vol. 8, No. 2, April 2018 6

IV. DESCRIPTION OF THE COMPONENTS

Stainless Steel-409L
Grade 409 stainless steel is a Ferrite steel that offers
good mechanical properties and high-temperature corrosion
resistance. It is commonly considered as a chromium
stainless steel, with applications in exhaust systems of
automobiles and applications that demand weldability.
Corrosion Resistance
Grade 409 stainless steels have excellent resistance to
exhaust gas and atmospheric corrosion, superior to that of
410 martensitic grades with 12% chromium and 3CR12.
Figure 3.0: Muffler However, the corrosion resistance is lower than that of
grade 430 steels containing 17% chromium. The surface of
grade 409 steels is liable to mild corrosion, which limits the
usage of steels for decorative purposes.
Heat Resistance
Grade 409 stainless steels offer scaling resistance at
temperatures up to 675°C during continuous operation, and
up to 815°C under intermittent conditions. These
temperatures pertain to specific service environments.
Welding
Grade 409 steels must be pre-heated to temperatures of
150 to 260°C before welding. Although grade 430 and 409
filler rods or electrodes can be used during welding of grade
409 steels, grade 309 electrodes or filler rods are strongly
Figure 3.1: Inner Core recommended by AS 1554.6. Care should be taken to weld
grade 409 steels with minimum heat, in order to mitigate
grain growth.
Applications
Automotive exhaust tubing
Mufflers

V. METHODOLOGY

Design&
Design testing

Figure 3.2: Front Chamber

Purchase& Modeling

welding process

Testing process

Figure 3.3: Back Chamber

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Bonfring International Journal of Industrial Engineering and Management Science, Vol. 8, No. 2, April 2018
Design and Testing
Designing of the muffler had been created using solid
works 2016 according to the dimensions of the regular
mufflers.
The design is been created by three different parts and
they are as follows:
[1] Center Core
[2] Input Chamber
[3] Output Chamber.
The three different parts are assembled under the
consequences of mating conditions.
By using the solid work flow simulation the parts
has been checked for water tight conditions and
simulation wizard is made to run for applying the
parameters for testing .
After the completion of wizard process input and
output values has been imported and global mesh
condition is given for undergoing the simulation
process.
Flow trajectories has been created to visualize the
gas flow in the muffler
Figure 5.1: Interior View of New Muffler
Purchasing and modeling
According to the dimensions of the muffler, the
stainless steel with grade of 409 l has been
purchased.
The drawings are made on the stainless steel plates
according to the dimensions.
By keeping the drawings in the stainless steel has a
reference the shapes of different steels have been
made by using the tools.
By using the drill bit of 6.5mm, the drill holes
have been made in stainless steels sheet for the
formation of “v” shape.
By keeping the drawings as a reference and by
using the bench vice and rubber hammer the v
shaped has been formed.
The center core has been formed by using some
bending tools and round rods.
By assembling the center part,“v” shaped and the
center plate the gas welding has been done to have
permanent joint using the required gas pressure
and filler materials.
According to the dimensions the design has been
drawn on stainless steel plates and by using the
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7
bending and cutting machine “L” shaped has been
formed for creating the outer box of the muffler.
Figure 5.2: Baffled „v‟ Shape
Welding Process
Center core has been welded withbottom L shaped
plate using gas welding process.
Steel wool has been inserted in every v shaped
baffles for absorbing the noise in the muffler
Top L shaped plate has been welded by joining it
with the bottom “L” shaped plate to create an outer
box shape.
By using the Design parameters the front and rear
cover has been created.
Inlet and outlet ports have been created using lathe
four jaw chucks with a diameter of 50mm.
Both plates have been welded by joining it with
top and bottom “L” shaped plates to create a
complete muffler.
Figure 5.3: Gas Welding Process
Testing Process
Leak Test
In order to check any leak in the welded area, it has
been checked with soap water.
Sound Test
Muffler is been connected to the exhaust pipe of
the car engine and s sound meter has been placed
at a distance of 5m from the exhaust pipe at an
angle of 45 to measure the sound value
The engine is made to run at an RPM of 1500,
1600, 1800, 2000, 3000&4000 to measure the
sound value.
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Figure 5.4: Sound Meter

Flow Test
Flow meter is placed near the exhaust pipe to
measure the output flow of the exhaust gas from Figure 6.4: Pressure flow in muffler
the muffler.
These values are also been taken with the
reference of RPM of the engine.

VI. CFD ANALYSIS OF MUFFLER

Figure 6.5: Mach number

Figure 6.1: Sectional View

Figure 6.6: Velocity flow in muffler

Figure 6.2: Wizard Process

Figure 6.7: Temperature variation in muffler

Figure 6.3: Automatic Meshing & Processing All the above analysis and process are done using solid
works 2016 in window10 X64bit OS with 4GB RAM &1
GB graphics card.

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Bonfring International Journal of Industrial Engineering and Management Science, Vol. 8, No. 2, April 2018 9

VII. RESULT Inner Pipe Muffler for the Prediction of Backpressure, Int. J.
Engg. Technol., ISSN: 0975-4024, 5, 3940-3950 (2013).
Mufflers are used to minimize sound transmission [4] E. Özdemir, R. Yılmaz, Z. Parlar and Ş. Arı, An Analysis of
caused by exhaust gases. To Optimized noise level of Geometric Parameters, Effects on Flow Characteristic of a
engine and reduce back pressure as possible. This can be Reactive Muffler, in International Research/Expert Conference,
achieved by new muffler designed. This muffler is designed Trends in the Development of Machinery and Associated
with absorbing and reflation mufflers and the muffler is Technology, Istanbul, Turkey (2013).
fabricated with 409L stainless steel. [5] N. S. Chavan and D. S. B. Wadkar, Design and Performance
Measurement of Compressor Exhaust Silencer By CFD, Int. J.
Design fabricated muffler is connected to the engine. Sci. Res., ISSN No. 2277-8179, 2(9), 156-158 (2013).
Exhaust noise measurement were made at 0.5 m and 45 [6] Potente and Daniel, General Design Principles for an
degrees angle from the end of the exhaust outlet with the Automotive Muffler, in Australian Acoustical Society,
precision sound level analyzer at the exhaust outlet level. Busselton, Western Australia (2005).
Sound level is measured old and new muffler installed at [7] A. E. W. Austen and T. Priede, Noise of Automotive Diesel
different speeds Engine, its Causes Reduction, S. A. E. Transaction, 74, 1000A
(1986)
s.n Engine Old New Insertion [8] S. Pal, T. S.h Golan, V. Kumar and V. Jain, Design of a
o speed muffler muffler lost Muffler & Effect ofResonator Length for 3 Cylinder SI Engine,
(dba) (dba) J. (IOSR-JMCE) (2014).

1 1000 80.3 66.6 13.7

2 1500 82.5 71.2 11.3

3 2000 85.3 74.5 10.8

4 3000 87.5 76.8 10.7

5 3500 96.7 80.5 16.2

VIII. CONCLUSION
A muffler was designed that meet the requirements
likely adequate insertion loss, minimal backpressure, space
constraints and durability, produce the minimal sound.
Hence good design of the muffler should give the best noise
reduction. The insertion loss in maximum at 3500 rpm with
16.2 dB. The maximum sound level of new muffler
installation is 80.5 dBA at 3500 rpm as the position of
install muffler. The variation of old and new muffler
minimum insertion loss is 10.7 dBA at 2500 rpm. The
designed muffler is capable to attenuate high as well as low
frequency noise. The muffler attenuates low frequency
noise, which lies between 200 Hz to 500 Hz. By replacing
the muffler to existing model sound has been reduced.

REFERENCES
[1] T. D. Whitehead, The Design of Resonant Absorbers,
University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand (2005).
[2] B. B. Ghosh, P. Bhattacharya, R. Panua and P. K. Bose,
Prediction of Noise Level by Mathematical Modeling in the
Exhaust Muffler and Validation of these AnalyticalResults with
the Experimental Results for 4-Stroke Diesel Engine, Adv.
Appl. Mathe. Anal., ISSN 0973-5313, 2, 41-47 (2007).
[3] S. D. Pangavhane, A. B. Ubale, V. A. Tandon and D. R.
Pangavhane, Experimental and CFD Analysis of a Perforated

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