Air flow distribution measurement of the vehicle cooling system test rig

Abstract

Radiator acts as cooling system of vehicle by the air flows while the car is moving and by suction fan when the car is in stationary. In this research, vehicle cooling system test rig has been fabricated to simulate and analysis the cooling process for better air flow measurement. A flow conditioner which is wind tunnel is designed and fabricated in order to create and guide the air flow. One preliminary and two actual experiments were conducted. The preliminary experiment was carried out to select the blower. The actual experiments were performed in order to obtain the velocity distribution and data of thermal analysis. The velocity distribution and flow profile of air were being compared for the configuration without and with wind tunnel. Besides, the effectiveness of the radiator at different blower motor speeds was also plotted. The fluctuation in velocity of air has decreased with the wind tunnel. The flow profile of air with wind tunnel shows a trend of flow in the duct as compared to asymmetric flow profile without the wind tunnel. With the wind tunnel, the highest effectiveness of the radiator is 73.80% at the average air velocity of 33.78 km/h. Without the wind tunnel, the highest effectiveness of the radiator is 65.61% at average air velocity of 39.21 km/h. As a conclusion, the effectiveness of radiator has improved with the air passing through the wind tunnel before entering the radiator.