Thermal Performance and Ambient Airside Pressure Drop Prediction for Automotive Charge Air Cooler Using 1-D Simulation

The present work discusses the developed simulation model aimed to predict the heat rejection (HR) performance and external pressure drop characteristics of automotive charge air cooler (CAC). Heat rejection and airside pressure drop characteristics of CAC were predicted for the conditions of different charge air mass flow rates and different cooling air velocities. The lack of detailed research on CAC performance prediction has motivated the development of the proposed simulation model. The present 1-D simulation has been developed based on the signal library of AMESIM application tool. Input parameters for this simulation such as core size, tube pitch, tube height, number of tubes, fin density, louver angle, louver pitch, charge air mass flow rate, cooling air velocity, charge air inlet temperature, and ambient temperature. Heat rejection curve and airside pressure drop of CAC were the output of the present simulation. This simulation can be effectively utilized to estimate the appropriate sizing of CAC in its design incubation stage. Developed simulation model predicted the heat rejection and airside pressure drop characteristics of CAC within ±10% and ±12% deviation against the experimental results respectively. Hence, by the utilization of this tool, the CAC design cost and development time can be saved dramatically.