Optimizing the Geometry of Degas Bottle Using CAE/CFD

Degas bottles have been extensively used in vehicles in order to act as an air pillow on top of the cooling loop and provide space for expansion. One of the important characteristics of the bottle which defines if it will work in a certain loop is the so called “capacity” of the bottle which defines the flowrate that degas bottle would be able to pass through without any foaming. Considering the complex geometry of degas bottle and the foaming phenomena, predicting the behavior of coolant in the bottle passages is challenging which requires costly tests. Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) has been extensively used in simulating multi-phase flows in automotive components. In the current project, CFD has been used to simulate the behavior of flow in bottle chambers and to provide guidelines for the design team in order to increase the bottle performance/capacity. The CFD guidelines were in agreement with test results and lead to improving the degas bottle capacity.