Cooling Capable Vehicle Front End Concepts Development: Response Surface Approach

The paper describes a process for rapid development of cooling capable front-end concepts for a vehicle based on an architecture, and a tool (Vehicle Parametric Model for Cooling) developed to execute the process.

The process involves upfront definition of allowable ranges of several parameters related to the vehicle front end that affect cooling. The tool is based on characterizing airflow through Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations and engine coolant temperature through one-dimensional (1D) thermal balance methods over the architectural domain in the form of a multi-parameter Response Surface using the Approximation Model provided by Isight. The number of sampling points needed for the Approximation is minimized by employing Design of Experiments (DOE) methods, while ensuring sufficient accuracy consistent with the goals of intended use of the Tool.

Using CFD to assess the effect of various design changes is time-consuming while relying on 1D analysis alone lacks fidelity required to capture three-dimensional (3D) geometry effects. The methodology proposed in this paper provides an efficient mechanism to deliver solutions as quickly as 1D analysis, yet including 3D effects. The proposed methodology provides solutions non-iteratively, identifying cooling capable combinations of vehicle design parameters prior to expending any time and resources for actual vehicle Computer Aided Design (CAD) data development and/or simulations of performance. Practical application of the method has reduced the time taken to identify multiple viable vehicle concepts to less than a week compared to several weeks or months using the traditional practice.