New mechanical variable valve actuation systems for motorcycle engines

This paper summarizes the results of the design of new mechanical variable valve actuation systems, developed for high-performance motorcycle engines, at University of Napoli Federico II, Department of Industrial Engineering – Section Mechanics and Energy. After a synthetic recapitulation of the main variable valve-actuation methods and of the main beneficial effects on performance, emissions, and consumptions of the modern automotive engines on which they are currently employed, the paper presents the results of our mechanical variable valve actuation systems, born to be applied on a MotoMorini engine, as required by the company. The paper starts with the description of a first study concerning a very simple system, used just to set up a model to be used for further and more complex activities. The study has been conducted implementing a numerical procedure specifically designed to determine cam profile and kinematic and dynamic characteristics of the whole system, starting from some input data (as described later). The model has been validated against the conventional timing system using kinematic simulations. The work has evolved through three main steps leading to three types of variable valve actuation systems, all mechanical systems (as defined in literature and described later). Results of the numerical procedure verify the validity of the variable valve actuation systems, and particularly, the last one shows a complete performance in terms of lift, duration, and timing variation of valve-lift law. This paper reports results reachable with these simple systems that give good perspectives of use for a new two-wheel vehicle engine.

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