Modelling of Automobile Radiator by Varying Structure and Materials

Radiators used in the automotive application are a class of heat exchangers whose main purpose is to cool the coolant coming from the internal combustion engines. These coolants flow through tubes covered with fins that facilitate a faster way of heat transfer to the surrounding more efficiently. With the increase in efficiency of the engine cooling system it directly helps in the longevity of the engine in other words, the life of the internal combustion engine increases multifold times. Upon investigating we found different shapes that can be used to optimize the radiators efficiency. There are several other ways to improve the efficiency of a radiator. And these can be achieved by improving the surface area of the radiator, improving airflow through it, improving coolant property which flows through these tubes covered with fin all around and at last using alternate materials that prove to be more efficient than the present ones that are being used. The demand of the current times of climate change and energy crisis have paved way for improved heat transfer rates and designing radiators in smaller dimensions and sizes at the same time being more efficient than the previous generation of radiators. With the above conditions in mind, it has been found out that with a simple modification of changing the existing rectangular-shaped radiators into spiral-shaped ones thereby improving efficiency to improved levels, which finds its use in the current generation of vehicles which are benefitting from the improved rate of heat transfer taking place. The spiral radiator of copper tube used here is wound in two coils connected centrally. Spiral tubes of the radiator have circumferential fins. In this type of configuration, heat transfer rate will increase because of having a circumferential fin across the length of the spiral tube through which water flows. These design considerations have been done keeping in mind the major aims to achieve for this type of design and they are improving heat transfer rate and achieving compactness of shape of radiator. We also did Computational Fluid Dynamics or CFD Analysis to test the material properties for the application of heat transfer and how it fares against old materials.