This content is not included in
your SAE MOBILUS subscription, or you are not logged in.
Reduced Drag and Adequate Cooling for Passenger Vehicles Using Variable Area Front Air Intakes
Technical Paper
2006-01-0342
ISSN: 0148-7191, e-ISSN: 2688-3627
Annotation ability available
Sector:
Language:
English
Abstract
Engine cooling systems are usually designed to meet two rare and extreme conditions; driving at maximum speed and driving up a specified gradient at full throttle while towing a trailer of maximum permitted mass. At all other times, the cooling system operates below its maximum capacity with an incurred drag penalty.
In this work it is being suggested to design the system using the existing methods and then vary the area of the cooling air intakes to permit the minimum amount of cooling air for adequate engine cooling. A full-size, Australian made Ford Falcon car (a large modern 'family' saloon) was tested at the Monash University Aero-acoustic Wind Tunnel. The cooling air intakes of the vehicle were shielded progressively until fully blocked. Four different possibilities of shielding were investigated with the aim of determining the variation of drag reduction with the shielding method employed.
Results from these tests found the optimum method for shielding the cooling intakes for minimizing the drag coefficient was vertical strips. This enables the airflow to be attached smoothly to the body. For a sealed cooling system, the drag reduction achieved was about 7% which corresponds to a prediction of about 2.9% and 1.7% in reducing fuel consumption on highway and urban driving conditions respectively.
Recommended Content
Technical Paper | CFD Application in Automotive Front-End Design |
Technical Paper | Cooling Drag of Ground Vehicles and Its Interaction with Ground Simulation |
Technical Paper | Air Flow Control Servomechanism for Cooling the Radiator of a Car Engine |
Authors
Citation
Jama, H., Watkins, S., and Dixon, C., "Reduced Drag and Adequate Cooling for Passenger Vehicles Using Variable Area Front Air Intakes," SAE Technical Paper 2006-01-0342, 2006, https://doi.org/10.4271/2006-01-0342.Also In
References
- Barnard R.H. 2000 'Theoretical and experimental investigation of the aerodynamic drag due to automotive cooling systems' Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part D: Journal of Automobile Engineering 214 8 919 927
- Chiou J.P. 1980 'The effect of flow nonuniformity on the sizing of engine radiators' SAE paper 800035
- Cortona E. Onder H. 2000 'Engine thermal management with electric cooling pump' SAE paper 2000-01-0965
- Dib S. 1997 ' Parametric study of the front-end of Australian cars and its effects on cooling' RMIT University Melbourne
- Gilhaus A.M. Renn V.E. 1986 'Drag and driving-stability-related aerodynamic forces and their interdependence - results of measurements on 3/8 scale basic car shapes' SAE paper 860211
- Howell J. Le Good G. 1999 'The influence of aerodynamic lift on high speed stability' SAE paper 1999-01-0651
- Hucho W.H. (1998) 'Aerodynamics of road vehicles' 4 th SAE international Warrendale, PA
- Layne T. R. Franke M.E. Ridgely D.B. 1996 'Vehicle Thermal Control with a Variable Area Inlet' Proceedings of the 1996 IEEE International Conference on Control Applications 775 780
- Lee Y.L. Hong Y.T. 2000 Analysis of engine cooling including flow non-uniformity over a radiator' International Journal of Vehicle Design 24 1 121 135
- Lin C. Saunders J. Watkins S. 2000 'The effect of ambient and coolant inlet temperatures and coolant flowrate on Specific Dissipation' SAE paper 2000-01-0579
- Lin C.H. 1999 'Specific dissipation as a technique for evaluating motor car radiator cooling performance' RMIT University Melbourne
- Ng E. Watkins S. Johnson P.W. Grant L. 2000 'Wind-tunnel tests of vehicle cooling performance at high blockage' SAE paper 2000-01-0351
- Ng E. Watkins S. Johnson P.W. Mole L. (2002) 'Use of a pressure-based technique for evaluating the aerodynamic and vehicle cooling systems' Paper 2002-01-0712
- Ng E. Watkins S. Johnson P.W 2004 'New Pressure Based Methods for Quantifying Radiator Airflow' IMechE Journal of Automobile Engineering Proc. Instn Mech Engrs 218 J Automobile Engineering April 17th 2004
- Society of Automotive Engineers 2000 'Engine cooling system field test (Air-TO-Boil)' 2000 SAE handbook 2 28
- Sovran G. Bohn M.S. 1981 'Formulae for the tractive-energy requirements of the vehicles driving the EPA schedules' SAE paper 810184
- Tecplot 1996 'Tecplot users' manual' Amtec Engineering Inc Bellevue, Washington DC
- Watkins S. 1990 'Wind-tunnel modeling of vehicle aerodynamics: with emphasis on turbulent wind effects on commercial vehicle drag' RMIT University Melbourne, Australia
- Williams J. Karanth D. Oler W. 2002 'Cooling inlet aerodynamic performance and system resistance' SAE paper 2002-01-0256
- Yohannessen K. Saunders J. Sheridan J. Niclasen D. 2002 “Experimental assessment of CFD predictions of fascia performance' SAE paper 2002-01-0570