Cooling Module Fan Noise Simulation

Automotive cooling module system consists of condenser, radiator and intercooler which is used for thermal management of vehicle. Condenser helps to reject cabin heat, radiator to reject engine heat and intercooler rejects charged air heat to ambient. CRFM (Condenser, Radiator and Fan module) is conventionally packaged under the bonnet of passenger vehicle. Fan circulate airflow through heat exchangers and has primary role of airflow delivery. While performing vehicle level thermal management duty, fan noise is generated from CRFM and fan noise is considered as an important design attribute of CRFM. Many researchers have done fan noise simulation at component level and very limited literatures at vehicle (system) level simulation are available. Customer perceives noise from outside of the vehicle and it is important to predict fan noise at vehicle level at various operating speeds. Such simulations are transient in nature and modeling complexity demands high computational cost. Current paper discusses simulation methodology for component and vehicle level simulation. Results of both scenarios are compared with experimental results and correlation established is discussed in this paper.

Vehicle level and component level fan noise simulations are carried out in LBM (Lattice Boltzman Method) based software and physical tests were conducted in semi anechoic chamber. This paper also demonstrates test and simulation approach used to perform this work. In current process, vehicle level and component level simulation correlation is established. Current methodology can be used for design ranking and will further assist in providing design countermeasures to reduce cooling module fan related noise during early product development.