A Practical and Simplified Airflow Simulation to Assess Underhood Cooling Performance

A practical underhood airflow simulation is conducted to assess the engine room cooling performance based on finite volume method. In order to estimate the velocity distribution on the radiator, components that can affect velocity distribution on radiator are considered in our CFD model such as vehicle exterior surface, air intake geometry, and porosity property of cooling module and engine room components. However, cooling water temperature at radiator inlet is the major factor to examine the cooling performance in engine room. The velocity results of radiator from CFD are then cooperated with the heat exchange characteristic of radiator from component tests to estimate the water temperature at radiator inlet. By comparing the full vehicle experiments, our approach can deliver the velocity distribution and temperature with acceptable accuracy. This approach is very useful for engineers to efficiently justify cooling performance in engine room and estimates the influence of any front-end style modification during styling stage of vehicle development.