Prosig Signal Processing Blog

By James Wren, Application Engineer, Prosig

The following application note shows the steps taken to perform a structural analysis on an automotive exhaust pipe structure with the aim of improving the structural damping properties of the exhaust pipe mount. This application note is a follow up to a previous article – “Preventing Component Failure In The Fast Lane”.

A recent signal processing application note described how the Prosig sponsored Dalmeny Racing Formula Ford Team, whilst contesting the UK Formula Ford 1600cc championship, suffered several minor structural failures on a particular part of an exhaust pipe mount. Prosig dispatched a team of engineers and after a brief survey of the damage the Prosig engineers made an outline assessment “Our initial thoughts are that the exhaust itself might be resonating at particular engine speeds, thus causing some shear forces in the mount, which could then in turn cause stresses in the material leading to cracking and eventually failure.” read »»»

In a recent article we described how the Prosig P8000 hardware and DATS software had been used to help Dalmeny Racing diagnose a problem with an exhaust bracket on their Formula Ford racing car. Whilst the car was instrumented for structural tests on the exhaust the opportunity was taken to also take some noise and vibration readings during an engine run up. It was felt that these would provide some useful “real world” data as well as maybe providing some extra information regarding the exhaust bracket failure. After analysing and animating the hammer data it became clear that the engine runup data wouldn’t be needed. However, it was decided that some analysis should be carried out to see if the noise and vibration data backed up the conclusions of the other tests. read »»»