CFD Based Air-to-Boil Temperature Prediction for Sport Utility Vehicle Radiator

Front end cooling module which consists of condenser, intercooler, radiator and fan is an important part of vehicle design as it affects radiator thermal performance. The current study describes a CFD based method to predict air-to-boil (ATB) temperature of a sport utility vehicle radiator. The predicted ATB values were compared with experimental data obtained from outdoor cooling trials. The predicted and the experimental values agreed to within 3-5 °C for operating conditions ranging from low gear-low speed condition to high gear-high speed conditions. It is anticipated that such analyses will lead to reduction of design cycle time and prototyping costs.