Thermodynamics and aerodynamics often place conflicting demands on the cooling airflow, so knowledge of the flow is an important factor in vehicle design.
As the existing systems used to determine the air flow distribution through a radiator were found to be inadequate, NedCar (see appendix) developed a new measurement system consisting of a number of small pressure differential probes, mounted in a radiator, and calibrated to read the local air velocity. A laptop PC controls the data acquisition and presentation. The resulting velocity distribution in the form of a 3-D plot, mean air flow, normalized heat rejection and other quantities are displayed, plotted and stored.
The system is quick and easy to use in all types of cooler installations in real cars, prototypes or styling models.
During the development of the micro-probes a great effort was put in obtaining, a reliable signal even at low air speeds, and an accuracy that was retained in non-uniform and oblique flow conditions.