A New Control Approach on Positioning of Heat Exchangers in Automotive Front End Cooling Module

Conventionally in automotive vehicles the heat exchangers like condenser and radiator are placed in a 'one behind other' configuration. In such arrangement radiator fan has to work more to carry away the heat rejected by both heat exchangers and whenever the condenser heat transfer capacity becomes excess, the engine cooling performance gets deteriorated. In this work, CFD and analytical study have been carried out to investigate the relation between heat exchanger configuration and its thermal performance. The obtained results layout the foundation to develop a control unit which decides the condenser position to be in a configuration 'one behind other'(obo) or 'one below other'(obelo). It is recommended that 'obo' configuration does well at vehicle speed less than 30kmph and beyond that 'obelo' can be chosen. This control approach along with the Active Grille Shutter system will provide better engine cooling system performance and fuel economy. The availability of cooling air flow and top tank temperature are evaluated in the both configurations.