CFD Analysis of Helical Tube Automobile Radiator Considering Different Coolants

Abstract

Increasing the rate of heat dissipation in automotive radiators is in great demand due to the use of more powerful engines in relatively small space. Insufficient rate of heat dissipation can result in overheating of the engine, and that causes corrosion and metal weakening of engine parts. The aim of this project is to design radiator for thermal stability of engine with increasing the rate of heat transfer and decreases the computational cost dramatically and leads the way to obtain hydrodynamic and thermal performance of a fin-and-helical tube type radiator by using CFD analysis. By adopting this methodology, the thermal performance of a complete radiator design can be obtained within a reasonable computational time and a CFD model with the proposed methodology can be implemented as a design tool for the radiator design which would lead to more optimized radiator designs. Overall heat transfer is calculated for each design. Different type of nano fluids Ethanol, Methanol, Al₂O₃/water2%, Al₂O₃/water3% and CuO/water and other coolants are taken into consideration while running the analysis. By The Varying turbulence model and surface Nusselt number, the contours of temperature, energy (pressure drop), and mass flow rate were calculated and plotted using ANSYS FLUENT 14.5. The purpose of this study is to minimize the stress on the engine and lighten automotive component because of heat generation, and to make automotive radiators more compact while maintaining important level of heat performance. Compactness plays significant role in heat exchanger performance; economy in manufacturing and operating costs, energy conservation and for ecological reasons.

Keywords: Helical Tube type Radiator, Nano Fluid, CFD