Performance of a water pump in an automotive engine cooling system

Abstract

A cooling system employed in an automobile is to maintain the desired coolant temperature thus ensuring for optimum engine operation. Forced convection obtained by means of a water pump will enhance the cooling effect. Thus it is necessary to understand the system’s pump operation and be able to provide for the ultimate cooling of the engine. The objective of this laboratory investigation is to study the water pump characteristics of an engine cooling system. The crucial water pump parameters are the head, power, and its efficiency. In order to investigate the water pump characteristic a dedicated automotive cooling simulator test rig was designed and developed. All of the data obtained are important towards designing for a more efficient water pump such as electric pump that is independent of the power from the engine. In addition to this fact, the simulator test rig can also be used to investigate for any other parameters and products such as radiator performance and electric pump before installation in the actual engine cooling system. From the experiment conducted to simulate for the performance of a cooling system of a Proton Wira (4G15), the maximum power equals to 37 W which indicates the efficiency of the pump is relatively too low as compared to the typical power consume by the pump from the engine which are about 1 to 2 kW. Whereas the maximum power and efficiency obtained from the simulator test rig simulator is equals to 42 W and 15% respectively.