Thermal Performance Prediction of Front-End Heat-Exchange Modules

The application of high performance engines and climate control systems, coupled with constraints relating to vehicle styling, aerodynamics and underbonnet packaging, continues to present demanding thermal management challenges in the design and layout of the front-end cooling module. Several computational fluid dynamics techniques are now available to assist in this design and packaging process, but many of these require a high level of specialization from the user. The work reported here outlines a relatively simple 1-dimensional technique to aid in the analysis and optimization of the cooling pack configuration. The tool can be used interactively by a multi-skilled vehicle engineer throughout the entire design and development of a new vehicle.