JP2023008464A - Side structure of engine - Google Patents

Abstract

To suppress interference of a fuel rail and a throttle body in collision.SOLUTION: A side structure of an engine includes: an intake air introduction pipe 14 disposed on an intake manifold 10 mounted on a face portion at one side in a prescribed direction of an engine main body 1; a throttle body 60 mounted on an extending portion 31 as a part extending to one side in a cylinder row direction with respect to an independent intake pipe portion 11 of the intake manifold 10, of the intake air introduction pipe 14; and a fuel rail 5 disposed on a face portion at one side in a prescribed direction of the engine main body 1 for distributing a fuel to a fuel supply device supplying the fuel to each of cylinders. The fuel rail 5 is positioned at the other side in the prescribed direction with respect to the intake air introduction pipe 14, and rigidity of a part at one side in a prescribed direction, of the extending portion 31 is lower than rigidity of a part at the other side in the prescribed direction.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 4

Description

The technology disclosed herein belongs to the technical field related to the side structure of an engine.

Conventionally, a structure is known in which an intake manifold is attached to a surface portion on one side of a multi-cylinder engine in a predetermined direction perpendicular to the cylinder row direction, and a fuel rail is arranged between the surface portion on the one side and the intake manifold. . In such a configuration, the intake pipe for introducing intake air into the surge tank of the intake manifold and the fuel rail are arranged close to each other.

A throttle body for adjusting the amount of intake air introduced into the surge tank is arranged in the intake pipe. Therefore, when the throttle body is displaced during a vehicle collision, the throttle body and the fuel rail may interfere with each other. In response to this, an engine side structure has been proposed, for example, as disclosed in Patent Document 1.

In Patent Document 1, in an engine in which the engine body is horizontally placed in the engine room so that the cylinder row direction is the vehicle width direction, an intake manifold is provided on the vehicle front surface of the engine body, and on the vehicle front side of the engine body, A delivery pipe (fuel rail) is arranged, an intake upstream pipe portion extends substantially in the vehicle width direction on the front side of the delivery pipe, a metal throttle body is attached to the intake upstream pipe portion, and the throttle body is attached to the delivery pipe. A structure positioned outside in the vehicle width direction from the end is disclosed.

Japanese Patent No. 4581747

In the structure described in Patent Document 1, interference between the throttle body and the fuel rail is suppressed in a collision mode (front collision in Patent Document 1) in which a load is input from a direction perpendicular to the cylinder row direction. can do. However, in Patent Document 1, no consideration is given to interference between the throttle body and the fuel rail in a collision mode (side collision in Patent Document 1) in which a load along the cylinder row direction is input.

Even in a collision mode in which a load along the direction of the cylinder row is input, if the throttle body is displaced toward the fuel rail, the fuel rail and the throttle body may interfere with each other. If the throttle body and the fuel rail come into contact with each other, the fuel rail may come off from the engine body, or the fuel rail itself may be damaged, resulting in fuel leakage. Therefore, there is room for improvement from the viewpoint of suppressing interference between the fuel rail and the throttle body by appropriately controlling the displacement of the throttle body in the destruction mode as described above.

The technology disclosed herein has been made in view of this point, and its purpose is to suppress interference between the fuel rail and the throttle body at the time of a collision.

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the technique disclosed herein provides an engine side in which an intake manifold is attached to one side surface portion of an engine body having a plurality of cylinders in a predetermined direction orthogonal to the cylinder row direction. With respect to the structure of parts, an independent intake pipe portion for introducing intake air from a surge tank provided in the intake manifold to each of the cylinders, and a an intake intake pipe extending to one side and introducing intake air into the surge tank; a throttle body attached to the intake intake pipe; and a fuel rail for distributing fuel to a fuel supply device that supplies fuel to each of the cylinders, wherein the fuel rail is located at a position substantially at the same height as the intake air introduction pipe, and the intake air introduction pipe The throttle body is located on the other side of the intake pipe in the predetermined direction, and the throttle body is a portion of the intake pipe extending to the one side in the cylinder row direction from the independent intake pipe portion. The extending portion is attached to the end portion of the one side in the direction, and the extending portion is configured such that the rigidity of the portion on the one side in the predetermined direction is lower than the rigidity of the portion on the other side in the predetermined direction. .

According to this configuration, when a load along the cylinder row direction is input to the throttle body, the portion of the extending portion on one side in the predetermined direction deforms before the portion on the other side in the predetermined direction. As a result, the throttle body is displaced to one side in a predetermined direction, that is, to the side away from the fuel rail. As a result, it is possible to suppress interference between the fuel rail and the throttle body at the time of collision.

In one embodiment of the side structure of the engine, the portion of the extending portion on the one side in the predetermined direction is a thin-walled portion whose thickness is thinner than the thickness of the portion on the other side in the predetermined direction. there is

According to this configuration, since the portion on one side in the predetermined direction is easily deformed, the throttle body can be easily displaced to the one side in the predetermined direction. This makes it possible to more effectively suppress interference between the fuel rail and the throttle body during a collision.

In the above embodiment, the upper portion of the extending portion may have a larger ratio of the thin portion than the lower portion of the extending portion.

According to this configuration, when a load along the direction of the row of cylinders is applied to the throttle body, the upper portion of the extending portion is likely to be deformed. As a result, the throttle body can be easily displaced toward one side and upward in the predetermined direction. As a result, the throttle body is displaced away from the fuel rail, so that interference between the fuel rail and the throttle body during a collision can be more effectively suppressed.

In the side structure of the engine, the extending portion may extend toward the other side in the cylinder row direction while being inclined toward the other side in the predetermined direction.

According to this configuration, when a load along the row of cylinders is input to the throttle body, a force directed toward one side in the predetermined direction is generated. As a result, the throttle body can be easily displaced to one side in the predetermined direction, so that interference between the fuel rail and the throttle body can be more effectively suppressed in the event of a collision.

In the side structure of the engine, the throttle body may be made of metal, and the extending portion may be made of resin.

According to this configuration, the extending portion is more easily deformed than the throttle body. Therefore, when a load along the cylinder row direction is input to the throttle body, the one side portion of the extending portion in the predetermined direction is positively deformed. As a result, the throttle body can be easily displaced to one side in the predetermined direction, so that interference between the fuel rail and the throttle body can be more effectively suppressed in the event of a collision.

As described above, according to the technology disclosed herein, the throttle body can be displaced away from the fuel rail when a load along the row of cylinders is applied to the throttle body. As a result, it is possible to suppress interference between the fuel rail and the throttle body at the time of collision.

FIG. 1 is a top view of an engine having side structures according to an exemplary embodiment. FIG. 2 is a front view showing an enlarged intake manifold of the engine. FIG. 3 is a rear view showing an enlarged intake manifold of the engine. FIG. 4 is a perspective view of the vicinity of the intake introduction pipe as viewed from the lower left side. FIG. 5 is a side view of the intake manifold viewed from the right side. FIG. 6 is a cross-sectional view taken along the line VI-VI of FIG. 5 .

Exemplary embodiments are described in detail below with reference to the drawings. In the following description, the front, rear, left, right, top, and bottom of the vehicle are simply referred to as front, rear, left, right, top, and bottom, respectively. As for the left-right direction, the left side is called the left when the front side is viewed from the rear side, and the right side is called the right.

FIG. 1 is a top view of the engine body 1 viewed from above. The engine body 1 is a multi-cylinder engine having a plurality of cylinders, specifically four cylinders. The engine body 1 is vertically placed in the engine room of the vehicle so that the direction of the cylinder rows is the front-rear direction. The engine body 1 is arranged so that the left side is the intake side and the right side is the exhaust side. In this embodiment, the lateral direction corresponds to a predetermined direction orthogonal to the cylinder row direction, one side of the predetermined direction corresponds to the left side, and the other side of the predetermined direction corresponds to the right side.

An intake manifold 10 for introducing intake air into the cylinder is connected to the left side surface portion 1a of the cylinder head of the engine body 1. As shown in FIG. The intake manifold 10 is made of synthetic resin. As shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, the intake manifold 10 includes a plurality of (here, four) independent intake pipe portions 11 branched for each cylinder and arranged in the front-rear direction. A surge tank portion 13 connected to the lower end portion and distributing intake air to each independent intake pipe portion 11; and an introduction tube 14 . A detailed configuration of the intake manifold 10 will be described later.

A throttle body 60 is attached to the front end of the intake pipe 14 . The throttle body 60 is a vehicle component for adjusting the amount of intake air introduced into the intake manifold 10 . A detailed configuration of the throttle body 60 will be described later.

As shown in FIGS. 1 and 3, a fuel pipe 3 through which fuel flows is arranged behind the intake manifold 10 . As shown in FIG. 3, the fuel pipe 3 includes a low-pressure pipe 3a that supplies fuel from a fuel tank (not shown) to the fuel pump 4, and a high-pressure pipe 3b through which fuel pressurized by the fuel pump 4 flows. The low-pressure pipe 3a is composed of a flexible resin tube. The high-pressure pipe 3b is composed of a metal pipe. Both the low-pressure pipe 3a and the high-pressure pipe 3b are arranged to extend vertically. A downstream end of the high-pressure pipe 3 b is connected to a rear end of the fuel rail 5 . The fuel rail 5 is a rail for distributing fuel to an injector (fuel supply device) that supplies fuel to each cylinder, and extends in the front-rear direction along the left side surface 1a of the engine body 1 . The fuel rail 5 is positioned on the right side of the intake pipe 14 at a position substantially at the same height as the intake pipe 14 , more specifically, at a position slightly below the intake pipe 14 . That is, the fuel rail 5 is positioned closer to the left side surface 1a of the engine body 1 than the intake pipe 14 is.

As shown in FIG. 4, the fuel rail 5 has a rail body 5a extending in the longitudinal direction, and a connector portion 5b extending toward the engine body 1 from the middle of the rail body 5a and connected to the engine body 1. As shown in FIG. That is, the fuel rail 5 is connected to the left side surface portion 1a of the engine body 1 via the connector portion 5b. The rail body 5a extends slightly forward from the connector portion 5b. The front end of the rail body 5a is closed. Four connector portions 5b are provided corresponding to the number of cylinders of the engine body 1 (FIG. 4 shows two connector portions 5b on the front side). A fuel return pipe (not shown) is connected to the fuel rail 5, and surplus fuel is returned to the fuel pump 4 through this fuel return pipe.

A protector 20 for protecting the fuel rail 5 is attached to the left side portion 1 a of the engine body 1 . The protector 20 is positioned forward of the tip of the fuel rail 5 . The protector 20 is a member for suppressing vehicle parts from interfering with the fuel rail 5 from the front side at the time of a frontal collision.

<Intake manifold>
Next, the configuration of intake manifold 10 will be described in detail.

As shown in FIG. 2, the intake manifold 10 is formed by joining three divided pieces of first to third divided pieces 30, 40, 50. As shown in FIG. The first to third split pieces 30 , 40 , 50 are arranged in the order of the first split piece 30 , the second split piece 40 , and the third split piece 50 from the side closer to the engine body 1 (that is, the right side). Each split piece 30, 40, 50 is firmly joined by vibrating and welding the edges in a state where the edges are assembled. The edge of each split piece 30, 40, 50 is thicker than the other portion of each split piece 30, 40, 50, and the connection portion between each split piece 30, 40, 50 has high rigidity. It's becoming

Each independent intake pipe portion 11 of the intake manifold 10 is composed of a first split piece 30 , a second split piece 40 and a third split piece 50 . Each independent intake pipe portion 11 is integrally connected to the lower left portion of the surge tank portion 13 . Each independent intake pipe portion 11 extends so as to curve upward and rightward from a connection portion with the surge tank portion 13 and is arranged to cover the upper side of the surge tank portion 13 . At least a portion of the plurality of independent intake pipe portions 11 (in particular, the independent intake pipe portion 11 positioned on the front side) covers the upper portion of the intake pipe 14 and extends to intersect the intake pipe 14 . there is Each independent intake pipe portion 11 communicates with the surge tank portion 13 at its lower end. The intake air passes through the intake pipe 14 and is accumulated in the surge tank portion 13, and then passes through each independent intake pipe portion 11 and is introduced into the cylinder.

The surge tank portion 13 is composed of a first split piece 30 and a second split piece 40 . As shown in FIG. 5, the surge tank portion 13 is formed continuously with the rear end portion of the intake introduction pipe 14 and extends in the front-rear direction and the left-right direction. The surge tank portion 13 has an elliptical shape that is longer in the vertical direction than in the horizontal direction when viewed from the front-rear direction (see FIG. 3). The surge tank portion 13 has a plurality of reinforcing ribs for increasing rigidity on the right side portion.

The intake pipe 14 is composed of a first split piece 30 and a second split piece 40 . As shown in FIG. 1, the intake pipe 14 extends in the front-rear direction. More specifically, the intake air introduction pipe 14 extends obliquely to the right toward the rear side and, as shown in FIG. 5, extends obliquely downward toward the rear side.

As shown in FIGS. 1, 4, and 5, the intake pipe 14 extends forward from the independent intake pipe portion 11. As shown in FIGS. An extending portion 31, which is a portion of the intake introduction pipe 14 that extends forward from the independent intake pipe portion 11, is composed only of the first split piece 30 among the first to third split pieces 30, 40, and 50. .

As indicated by a black arrow in FIG. 6, the left side portion of the extending portion 31 is a thin portion 31a whose thickness is thinner than that of the right side portion. Specifically, the thickness of the thin portion 31a is about two-thirds of the thickness of the other portions of the extension portion 31 . As indicated by the black arrow in FIG. 6, the upper portion of the extension 31 has a larger proportion of the thin portion 31a than the lower portion of the extension 31 . When the extending portion 31 is halved vertically, only the left half of the lower half has a thin portion 31a, while the thin portion 31a extends to the right side of the upper half. , and the thin portion 31a. Due to the presence of this thin portion 31a, the left portion of the extending portion 31 has lower rigidity than the right portion. In particular, the extending portion 31 has lower rigidity in the upper left portion than in the lower right portion.

As shown in FIG. 4 , the thin portion 31 a extends to the connecting portion between the first split piece 30 and the second split piece 40 in the intake introduction pipe 14 . That is, the thin portion 31a extends over the extension portion 31 in the direction in which the intake pipe 14 extends. A rear end portion of the thin portion 31a extends obliquely downward toward the rear side.

The extension 31 has a flange 32 at its front end. The flange 32 has a plurality of fastening portions (four in this embodiment) to which the bolts 100 (see FIG. 2) are respectively fastened.

<Throttle body>
The throttle body 60 is attached to the front end portion of the extension portion 31 . As shown in FIG. 1, the throttle body 60 is positioned forward of the front end of the fuel rail 5 when viewed from above. When viewed from above, the throttle body 60 overlaps the front portion of the protector 20 with an actuator housing 63 , which will be described later. The throttle body 60 is made of metal, such as an aluminum alloy. Throttle body 60 may be made of a metal other than an aluminum alloy.

The throttle body 60 has a communicating portion 61 communicating with the intake pipe 14 and a throttle valve 62 (see FIG. 2) provided inside the communicating portion 61 . The throttle valve 62 is a valve that adjusts the amount of intake air introduced into the intake manifold 10 . The amount of intake air introduced into the intake manifold 10 is adjusted by adjusting the opening of the throttle valve 62 . In this embodiment, the throttle valve 62 is electrically operated. Incidentally, the throttle valve 62 may be of a mechanical type.

The throttle body 60 has an actuator housing 63 that houses an actuator (not shown) for adjusting the opening of the throttle valve 62 . As shown in FIG. 2 , the actuator housing 63 is provided so as to spread over the upper right side of the communication portion 61 and extends to the upper side and the right side of the communication portion 61 . The actuator housing 63 spreads above and to the right of the extending portion 31 when viewed from the front side. The actuator housing 63 is positioned on the upper left side of the fuel rail 5 when viewed from the front side. As shown in FIG. 1, the right portion of the actuator housing overlaps the front portion of protector 20 when viewed from above. The actuator is composed of a motor and gears for transmitting the rotation of the motor to the throttle valve 62 .

A flange 64 is formed at the rear end of the throttle body 60 . The flange 64 has a fastening portion at a position corresponding to the fastening portion of the extending portion 31 . The throttle body 60 is attached to the extension portion 31 by aligning the fastening portion and the fastening portion of the extension portion 31 and then tightening the fastening portions together with bolts 100 .

Here, in a collision mode in which a load is generated along the direction of the cylinder row, more specifically, in the case of a frontal collision of the vehicle, the vehicle-mounted parts (radiator, etc.) located in the front part of the vehicle move backward and the throttle body 60 moves forward. may come into contact with When an in-vehicle component contacts the throttle body 60 from the front side, a rearward collision load is input to the throttle body 60 . When a rearward load is input to the throttle body 60, the throttle body 60 moves backward. At this time, if the throttle body 60 is displaced leftward and downward, the throttle body 60 and the fuel rail 5 may come into contact with each other. If the throttle body 60 and the fuel rail 5 come into contact with each other, the connector portion 5b of the fuel rail 5 may come off from the engine body 1, or the rail body 5a may break, resulting in fuel leakage.

On the other hand, in the present embodiment, the extending portion 31 to which the throttle body 60 is attached has lower rigidity in the left portion than in the right portion. As a result, when a rearward collision load is input to the throttle body 60, the left side portion of the extending portion 31 is deformed before the right side portion thereof. Therefore, the throttle body 60 is displaced to the left, that is, to the side away from the fuel rail 5 . As a result, interference between the fuel rail 5 and the throttle body 60 at the time of collision can be suppressed. Also, an increase in the weight of the intake manifold 10 can be suppressed.

In particular, in the present embodiment, the left portion of the extension portion 31 is a thin portion 31a whose thickness is thinner than the thickness of the right portion. This makes it easier to displace the throttle body 60 leftward, in which the left portion of the extending portion 31 is particularly prone to deformation. This makes it possible to more effectively suppress interference between the fuel rail 5 and the throttle body 60 during a collision.

Further, in the present embodiment, the thin portion 31a extends over the extension portion 31 in the direction in which the intake introduction pipe 14 extends. Thereby, the thin portion 31a of the extension portion 31 can be formed as wide as possible, and the left portion of the extension portion 31 can be easily deformed. As a result, interference between the fuel rail 5 and the throttle body 60 at the time of collision can be more effectively suppressed.

In addition, in the present embodiment, the upper portion of the extension portion 31 has a larger proportion of the thin portion 31 a than the lower portion of the extension portion 31 . Accordingly, when a rearward collision load is input to the throttle body 60, the upper portion of the extension portion 31 as well as the left portion of the extension portion 31 are likely to deform. As a result, the throttle body 60 is easily displaced toward the upper left side. Therefore, since the throttle body 60 is displaced away from the fuel rail 5, interference between the fuel rail 5 and the throttle body 60 can be more effectively suppressed at the time of collision.

In addition, in the present embodiment, the extending portion 31 extends obliquely to the right toward the rear side. As a result, when a rearward collision load is input to the throttle body 60, a leftward force is generated. As a result, the throttle body 60 is more likely to be displaced to the left, so interference between the fuel rail 5 and the throttle body 60 can be more effectively suppressed during a collision.

In addition, in the present embodiment, the extending portion 31 extends obliquely downward toward the rear side. As a result, when a rearward collision load is input to the throttle body 60, an upward force is generated. As a result, the throttle body 60 is more likely to be displaced upward, so that interference between the fuel rail 5 and the throttle body 60 during a collision can be more effectively suppressed.

(Other embodiments)
The technology disclosed herein is not limited to the above-described embodiments, and substitutions are possible without departing from the scope of the claims.

For example, in the above-described embodiment, the left portion of the extension portion 31 is provided with the thin portion 31a to reduce the rigidity of the left portion of the extension portion 31. The rigidity of the right portion of the portion 31 is made lower than that of the portion 31 . Without being limited to this, the rigidity of the right portion of the extension portion 31 may be increased so that the rigidity of the left portion of the extension portion 31 is lower than the rigidity of the right portion of the extension portion 31 . For example, by providing the right side portion of the extension portion 31 with a reinforcing rib extending in the direction in which the extension portion 31 extends, the rigidity of the right portion of the extension portion 31 can be increased.

In addition, in the above-described embodiment, the thin portion 31 a occupies a larger proportion of the upper portion of the extension portion 31 than the lower portion of the extension portion 31 . The thin portion 31 a may occupy the same proportion in the upper portion of the extension portion 31 and the lower portion of the extension portion 31 .

Further, in the above-described embodiment, the thin portion 31a extends over the entire extending portion 31 in the direction in which the intake introduction pipe 14 extends. Alternatively, the thin portion 31a may be provided only on a portion of the extending portion 31 in the direction in which the intake pipe 14 extends.

Further, in the above-described embodiment, the engine body 1 is vertically placed in the engine room so that the cylinder row direction is the front-rear direction. Alternatively, the engine body 1 may be placed horizontally in the engine room so that the cylinder row direction is the left-right direction (vehicle width direction). In this case, the predetermined direction is the front-rear direction.

The above-described embodiments are merely examples, and should not be construed as limiting the scope of the present disclosure. The scope of the present disclosure is defined by the claims, and all modifications and changes within the equivalent range of the claims are within the scope of the present disclosure.

The technology disclosed herein is useful as an engine side structure in which an intake manifold is attached to one side face of an engine body having a plurality of cylinders in a predetermined direction perpendicular to the cylinder row direction.

1 Engine body 5 Fuel rail 10 Intake manifold 11 Independent intake pipe portion 14 Intake introduction pipe 31 Extension portion 31a Thin portion 60 Throttle body

Claims (5)

An engine side structure in which an intake manifold is attached to one side surface of an engine body having a plurality of cylinders in a predetermined direction perpendicular to the cylinder row direction,
an independent intake pipe portion for introducing intake air into each cylinder from a surge tank provided in the intake manifold;
an intake air introduction pipe that extends along the cylinder row direction to one side in the cylinder row direction from the independent intake pipe portion and introduces intake air into the surge tank;
a throttle body attached to the intake introduction pipe;
a fuel rail provided on the one side surface portion of the engine body in the predetermined direction, extending along the cylinder row direction, and distributing fuel to a fuel supply device that supplies fuel to each cylinder;
the fuel rail is positioned on the other side of the intake pipe in the predetermined direction at approximately the same height as the intake pipe;
The throttle body is attached to the end of the one side in the cylinder row direction of the extending portion, which is a portion of the intake introduction pipe that extends to the one side in the cylinder row direction from the independent intake pipe portion,
The side structure of the engine, wherein the extending portion has lower rigidity at the portion on the one side in the predetermined direction than the rigidity at the portion on the other side in the predetermined direction. In the engine side structure according to claim 1,
A side structure of an engine, wherein a portion of the extending portion on the one side in the predetermined direction is a thin portion having a thickness smaller than a thickness of a portion on the other side in the predetermined direction. In the engine side structure according to claim 2,
A side structure of an engine, wherein an upper portion of the extension portion is occupied by a larger proportion of the thin portion than a lower portion of the extension portion. In the engine side structure according to any one of claims 1 to 3,
The side structure of the engine, wherein the extending portion extends toward the other side in the cylinder row direction while being inclined toward the other side in the predetermined direction. In the engine side structure according to any one of claims 1 to 4,
The throttle body is made of metal,
The engine side structure, wherein the extension is made of resin.

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