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TABLE OF CONTENTS
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3.5. COMPUTATION: .................................................................................................................... 31
3.6. IMPROVING THE RADIATOR ALUMINUM MODEL .................................................................. 35
CHAPTER 4: RESULTS AND DISCUSION............................................................................... 37
CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION ..................................................... 38
REFRENCES : .............................................................................................................................. 39
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LIST OF FIGURES
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Figure 23: Radiator tube. ............................................................................................................... 29
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AUTOMOTIVE COOLING SYSTEM IN INDUSTRY
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
Almost all cars currently use what is called a four-stroke combustion cycle to convert gasoline
into motion. The four-stroke approach is also known as the Otto cycle, in honor of Nikolaus
Otto, who invented it in 1867. [1]
1. Intake stroke : The piston starts at the top, the intake valve opens, and the piston moves
down to let the engine take in a cylinder-full of air and gasoline. This is the intake stroke.
Only the tiniest drop of gasoline needs to be mixed into the air for this to work.
2. Compression stroke: the piston moves back up to compress this fuel/air mixture.
Compression makes the explosion more powerful.
3. Combustion stroke : When the piston reaches the top of its stroke, the spark plug emits a
spark to ignite the gasoline. The gasoline charge in the cylinder explodes, driving the
piston down.
4. Exhaust stroke : Once the piston hits the bottom of its stroke, the exhaust valve opens and
the exhaust leaves the cylinder to go out the tailpipe.
Now the engine is ready for the next cycle, so it intakes another charge of air and gas.
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Figure 1:
Internal
combustion
Modern automotive internal combustion engines generate a huge amount of heat. This heat is
created when the gasoline and air mixture is ignited in the combustion chamber. This explosion
causes the piston to be forced down inside the engine, levering the connecting rods, and turning
the crankshaft, creating power. Metal temperatures around the combustion chamber can exceed
1000° F. In order to prevent the overheating of the engine oil, cylinder walls, pistons, valves, and
other components by these extreme temperatures, it is necessary to effectively dispose of the
heat.
It has been stated that a typical average-sized vehicle can generate enough heat to keep a 5-room
house comfortably warm during zero degree weather (and I'm not talking about using the exhaust
pipe). Approximately 1/3 of the heat in combustion is converted into power to drive the vehicle
and its accessories.
Another 1/3 of the heat is carried off into the atmosphere through the exhaust system. The
remaining 1/3 must be removed from the engine by the cooling system. Modern automotive
engines have basically dumped the Air Cooled System for the more effective Liquid Cooled
System to handle the job. In a liquid cooled system, heat is carried away by the use of a heat
absorbing coolant that circulates through the engine, especially around the combustion chamber
in the cylinder head area of the engine block. The coolant is pumped through the engine, then
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after absorbing the heat of combustion is circulated to the radiator where the heat is transferred to
the atmosphere. The cooled liquid is then transferred back into the engine to repeat the process.
Excessive cooling system capacity can also be harmful, and may affect engine life and
performance. You must understand that coolant temperatures also affect oil temperatures and
more engine wear occurs when the engine oil is below 190° F. An effective cooling system
controls the engine temperature within a specific range so that the engine stays within peak
performance.
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1.3. Cooling System Functions :
Temperatures in the combustion chamber of the engine can reach 4,500 F (2,500 C) [2], so
cooling the area around the cylinders is critical. Areas around the exhaust valves are especially
crucial, and almost all of the space inside the cylinder head around the valves that is not needed
for structure is filled with coolant. If the engine goes without cooling ,the metal got hot enough
for the piston to weld itself to the cylinder. This usually means the complete destruction of the
engine. The cooling system removes enough heat to keep the engine at a safe temperature for best
performance. A secondary function of the cooling system is to provide interior cabin heat during
cold winter.
Since most cars are liquid-cooled, we will focus on that system in this project.
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Figure 3: Cooling system components.
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1.5. Engine :
The engine block and cylinder head have many passageways cast or machined in them to allow
for fluid flow. These passageways direct the coolant to the most critical areas of the engine.
One interesting way to reduce the demands on the cooling system is to reduce the amount of heat
that is transferred from the combustion chamber to the metal parts of the engine. Some engines
do this by coating the inside of the top of the cylinder head with a thin layer of ceramic. Ceramic
is a poor conductor of heat, so less heat is conducted through to the metal and more passes out of
the exhaust.
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1.6. Radiator :
A radiator is a type of heat exchanger. It is designed to transfer heat from the hot coolant that
flows through it to the air blown through it by the fan. Most modern cars use aluminum radiators.
These radiators are made by brazing thin aluminum fins to flattened aluminum tubes. The coolant
flows from the inlet to the outlet through many ttubes
ubes mounted in a parallel arrangement. The fins
conduct the heat from the tubes and transfer it to the air flowing through the radiator.
The radiator cap actually increases the boiling point of your coolant by about 45 F (25 C). How
does this simple cap do this? The same way a pressure cooker increases the boiling temperature
of water. The cap is actually a pressure release valve, and on ca
cars
rs it is usually set to 15 psi. The
boiling point of water increases when the water is placed under pressure. When the fluid in the
cooling system heats up, it expands, causing the pressure to build up. The cap is the only place
where this pressure can esc
escape,
ape, so the setting of the spring on the cap determines the maximum
pressure in the cooling system. When the pressure reaches 15 psi, the pressure pushes the valve
open, allowing coolant to escape from the cooling system. This coolant flows through the
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overflow tube into the bottom of the overflow tank. This arrangement keeps air out of the system.
When the radiator cools back down, a vacuum is created in the cooling system that pulls open
another spring loaded valve, sucking water back in from the bottom of the overflow tank to
replace the water that was expelled.
A radiator fan is used to draw the air towards the radiator and help in the cooling process.
The radiator fan has four or more blades that spin rapidly to provide sufficient air that would cool
the engine. It is usually mounted between the radiator and the engine so that the air can easily get
to the radiator. Some cars have an additional fan in front of the radiator in order to draw more
cool air into the engine. Especially when it is so hot and the vehicle isn’t moving fast enough,
very little cool air reaches the radiator, and thus, the engine is not cooled properly. Fig(7,8)
illustrates the radiator fan.
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Figure 8: Radiator cooling fan.
The water pump is a simple centrifugal pump driven by a belt connected to the crankshaft of the
engine. The pump circulates fluid whenever the engine is running. The water pump uses
centrifugal force to send fluid to the outside while it spins, causing fluid to be drawn from the
center continuously. The inlet to the pump is located near the center so that fluid returning from
the radiator hits the pump vanes. The pump vanes fling the fluid to the outside of the pump,
where it can enter the engine. The fluid leaving the pump flows first through the engine block and
cylinder head, then into the radiator and finally back to the pump.[3]
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1.9. Plumbing :
The cooling system has a lot of plumbing. We'll start at the pump and work our way through the
system. The pump sends the fluid into the engine block, where it makes its way through passages
in the engine around the cylinders. Then it returns through the cylinder head of the engine. The
thermostat is located where the fluid leaves the engine. The plumbing around the thermostat
sends the fluid back to the pump directly if the thermostat is closed. If it is open, the fluid goes
through the radiator first and then back to the pump. There is also a separate circuit for the
heating system. This circuit takes fluid from the cylinder head and passes it through a heater core
and then back to the pump.
1.10. Fluid :
Cars operate in a wide variety of temperatures, from well below freezing to well over 100 F (38
C). So whatever fluid is used to cool the engine has to have a very low freezing point, a high
boiling point, and it has to have the capacity to hold a lot of heat. Water is one of the most
effective fluids for holding heat, but water freezes at too high a temperature to be used in car
engines.
50/50 70/30
Pure Water
C2H6O2/Water C2H6O2/Water
The fluid that most cars use is a mixture of water and ethylene glycol (C2H6O2), also known as
antifreeze. By adding ethylene glycol to water, the boiling and freezing points are improved
significantly. The temperature of the coolant can sometimes reach 250 to 275 F (121 to 135 C).
Even with ethylene glycol added, these temperatures would boil the coolant, so something
additional must be done to raise its boiling point. The cooling system uses pressure to further
raise the boiling point of the coolant. Just as the boiling temperature of water is higher in a
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pressure cooker, the boiling temperature of coolant is higher if you pressurize the system. Most
cars have a pressure limit of 14 to 15 pounds per square inch (psi), which raises the boiling point
another 45 F (25 C) so the coolant can withstand the high temperatures.
1.11. Thermostat :
The thermostat's main job is to allow the engine to heat up quickly, and then to keep the engine at
a constant temperature. It does this by regulating the amount of water that goes through the
radiator. At low temperatures, the outlet to the radiator is completely blocked -- all of the coolant
is recirculated back through the engine. Once the temperature of the coolant rises to between 180
and 195 F (82 - 91 C), the thermostat starts to open, allowing fluid to flow through the radiator.
By the time the coolant reaches 200 to 218 F (93 - 103 C), the thermostat is open all the way.
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Figure 10: The open positions of a thermostat.
The secret of the thermostat lies in the small cylinder located on the engine-side of the device.
This cylinder is filled with a wax that begins to melt at around 180 F (different thermostats open
at different temperatures, but 180 F is a common one). A rod connected to the valve presses into
this wax. When the wax melts, it expands significantly, pushing the rod out of the cylinder and
opening the valve.
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1.12. Thermal Analysis
In general, there are three mechanisms of heat transfer. These mechanisms are conduction,
convection and radiation.
Thermal analysis calculates the temperature distribution in a body due to some or all of these
mechanisms. In all three mechanisms, heat energy flows from the medium with higher
temperature to the medium with lower temperature. Heat transfer by conduction and convection
requires the presence of an intervening medium while heat transfer by radiation does not.[4]
The mechanism of convection can be explained as follows: as the layer of the fluid adjacent to
the hot surface becomes warmer, its density decreases (at constant pressure, density is inversely
proportional to the temperature) and becomes buoyant. A cooler (heavier) fluid near the surface
replaces the warmer fluid and a pattern of circulation forms.
The rate of heat exchange between a fluid of temperature Tf and a face of a solid of area A at
temperature Ts obeys the Newton's law of cooling which can be written as:
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Where h is the convection heat transfer coefficient. The units of h are W/m2.K or Btu/s.in2.F. The
convection heat transfer coefficient (h) depends on fluid motion, geometry, and thermodynamic
and physical properties.
2. Forced Convection :An external means such as a fan or a pump is used to accelerate the flow
of the fluid over the face of the solid. The rapid motion of the fluid particles over the face of the
solid maximizes the temperature gradient and increases the rate of heat exchange. In the
following image, air is forced over a hot plate.
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1.13. Introduction to Reverse Engineering (RE):
In this project, an existing “ Daihatsu” Sirion’s cooling system will be studied and evaluated. In
the designing stage, features and dimensions for the radiator will be fully defined and measured.
Choosing the right radiator’s material and deciding if the material has been chosen is good
enough to keep the radiator running without any overheating during the real conditions, is not an
easy task .
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1.15. Project Objectives:
1. Studying a sub-module such as the cooling system in order to absorb its technology for the
purpose of future technology transfer in auto industry.
2. Testing how the redesigned cooling system will work due to design and material properties
restriction using finite element software.
4. Using the developed model to simulate and evaluate the thermal loading on the radiator.
1.16. Methodology
1. Measuring all the radiator’s dimensions and features using reverse engineering tool system.
4. Evaluate the radiator’s performance with Aluminum and Copper Finite-element models.
5. Modify the radiator tubes and fins design and evaluate its performance using Finite-element
model.
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1.17. CSMOS Work :
COSMOS Works Designer is a software used for the definition ,preparation and visualization of
all the data related to a numerical simulation. This data includes definition of the material
,geometry, boundary conditions and other parameters. All material and conditions are defined by
the user. The meshing is done by the program itself once the problem has been defined.
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CHAPTER 2: SOLID MODEL DEVELOPMENT
The radiator consists of forty eight Aluminum tube, thin fins between the tubes and two plastic
covers. The radiator consists of forty five aluminum tube, fins between tubes, upper & lower
cover had been made from plastic, see figure (13). The overall dimensions of radiator assembly
were obtained. Next, radiator disassembly is carried to measure and obtain the actual dimensions
to be used in solid model development.
To increase the performance of computer during solid model development, it is decided to reduce
number of tubes to nine.
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2.1.1. The Radiator Core
It is made from Aluminum and consists of forty eight tubes. The general out dimensions of
radiator core is : 17 * 323 * 422 mm, see figures (14-15).
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Figure 15:Radiator core model ( front view)
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2.1.2. Radiator Tubes and Fins Dsign
To decrease the computational time and due to symmetry, It is decided to model one tube with
two side fines, see figure (16). Figure(17) shows the outer dimension of the developed solid
model. The Tube shape is assumed to be square.
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Figure 17: Radiator tube and fins model.
The Radiator covers are made from plastic and crimped to radiator core. The outer dimensions
of both upper and lower covers are shown in solid model illustrated in figures (18-19).
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Figure 18:Radiator lower cover.
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2.1.4. Radiator Fan Solid Model Development
Fig (20) shows the developed model including the outer dimensions.
Figures(21-22) shows the solid model assembly drawings of radiator assembly system.
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Fan Upper
cover radiator
cover
Radiator
core
Lower
radiator
Motor Fan
cover
Figure 21: Assembled drawing.
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Figure 22: Assembled drawing-front.
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CHAPTER 3: FINITE- ELEMENT ANALYSIS
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3.3. Boundary and Loading Conditions
One tube and its fins is being studied and evaluated. The engine provides 40 KW power [5], and
assuming that the cooling system load is one third of the engine power which is equal to 13.34
KW. So, the load per tube is [(13.34*1000)/48]= 277 W.
In the analysis, due to some limitation of the finite element software, the following assumptions
has been used :
The tube height has been reduced from 400 mm to 100 mm.
The power per tube equals to 70 W, which is simulates the hot water flow per
tube.
Heat power source is distributed along the internal faces of the tube which is
equal to 70 W per tube .
Forced convection condition is applied on all the external faces of the tube and
the fins.
Fig(23) shows the forced convection and heat power location on the the tube.
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70 W heat power
source is applied to
the internal faces
Forced
convection
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3.4. Mesh Generation
Solid mesh has been generated using Tetrahedral elements. Fig (24) shows the solid mesh.
Total number of Elements = 75974. The mesh has been done by COSMOS Works software.
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3.5. Computation:
Steady State Analysis has been done using a desktop computer with specification: P4, CPU 3.2
GHz and 512 GB of RAM. The computation running time is 30 minutes. Fig (25-27) shows the
temperature for Aluminum and Copper tube temperature. The figures show that the Cooper
radiator has dropped the water temperature by (3.56 %.) comparing with the Aluminum radiator.
Fig.(28) shows the contour of temperature distribution in the Aluminum radiator, The figure
demonstrate that the temperatures is higher in the upper section of the radiator and lower in the
bottom section due to the water flow and the effect of forced convection induced by the fan.
Fig.(27) shows that the Copper radiator is more efficient than aluminum one. Since, it resulted in
reducing the radiator water temperature by 3.56% .It’s recommended to use Copper radiator
rather than Aluminum radiator due to higher temperature drop.
Temp (Kelvin)
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Figure 26: Aluminum tube temp. distribution
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Figure 28:Aluminum temperature distribution contour.
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Figure 29: Copper temperature distribution contour.
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3.6. Improving the Radiator Aluminum Model
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The improved design has reduced the maximum temperature by 3.9 % as shown in fig.(31)
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CHAPTER 4: RESULTS AND DISCUSION
1. The reverse engineering has been implemented throughout the present work, in order to
achieve design analysis and improvement for the car radiator element.
2. A comparison has been carried out in chapter three between Aluminum and Copper alloy
radiator models.
3. It is found that Copper radiator is more efficient when compared with the Aluminum
radiator due to higher temperature drop (3.56 %.). However, The Aluminum radiator is
much cheaper.
4. A new design of the radiator has been proposed. The radiator dimensions were changed
by increasing the width from 20 mm to 40 mm. And this change has reduced in reducing
the maximum temperature by 3.9 %.
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CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
The efficiency of the internal combustion engine cooling system depends mainly on the
performance of its units. The main unit in this system is the radiator.
It is reported that Copper radiator is more efficient when compared with the Aluminum radiator
due to higher temperature drop. However, The Aluminum radiator is much cheaper.
It’s recommended to use Copper radiator rather than Aluminum radiator due to higher
temperature drop .Aluminum radiator is recommended due to lower cost.
Also the modified design is preferred due to low temperature where as the old model is preferred
due to low cost and low weight.
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REFRENCES :
[1]. William H. C. and Donald L. A,1981. Automotive Fuel, Lubricating, and Cooling Systems.
[4]. Yunus A. Cengel and Robert H. Turner, 2005. Fundamental of Thermal-Fluid Sciences.
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