A numerical analysis for the cooling module related to automobile air-conditioning system

The main objective of this paper is to develop a 3D CFD program which can be used by the development engineer to analyze the performance of the vehicle cooling system. There is a demand for new vehicles to be made in shorter product development cycles while continuously improving the vehicle's performance and quality. These demands accelerate the use of Computer Aided Engineering (CAE) tools for vehicle test simulations. For engine cooling, it is very important to use CFD tools for the prediction of front end airflow pattern. However, the geometry of a vehicle's front end and underbody region are extremely complex. From this study, the performance of the automotive cooling system can be predicted and also compared with experimental data. That is, a method to predict the coolant inlet temperature of the radiator is presented. This method includes predicting the coolant and air flow patterns in front of the condenser and radiator in a real vehicle model. This method employed the SIMPLE and SIP numerical methods to solve the Navier-Stokes equations for incompressible and three-dimensional fluid motion. The standard k-, turbulence model was applied and the law of wall was applied to the wall boundary. For the validation of the developed method, numerous simulations were completed in accordance with various conditions and the results were compared with existing experimental data. (c) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.