Abstract:

In order to find the main factors that play an important role in vehicle radiator performance and vehicle reliability,a physical model of the vehicle engine cabin is set up according to the original data,and a heat exchange model is established to describe the radiator module. Then,a virtual tunnel is adopted to perform a comparative analysis under typical working conditions with CFD ( Computational Fluid Dynamics) numerical simulation,and the simulated results accord well with the experimental ones. Moreover,a new physical model is established according to another popular engine cabin arrangement,which is compared with the former through simulation. It is found that there is a temperature gradient of cold air inside the radiator,that the flowability of the air improves in regular engine cabin,and that the engine cabin with side-sited radiators is of higher heat exchange performance.

Key words: vehicle radiator, computational fluid dynamics, numerical analysis, engine cabin, virtual wind tunnel, heat exchange