Automotive Heat Exchangers Play Major Role in Automobile Operations, Owing To Th

Posted by Ajinkya on February 23rd, 2021

Automotive heat exchangers are mechanical devices specifically designed to transport heat between two or more substances i.e., gases, liquids, or even vapors of different temperatures. Depending on the kind of heat exchanger used, the heat transiting process may be either via a physical barrier, such as a layer of metal, or via a physical permeable membrane, such as in a heat exchanger found in a vehicle's engine. Heat exchangers play an important role in the operation of automobiles because of their ability to effectively transfer heat from one fluid to another. The engine compartment is one area in a vehicle where heat exchangers find significant use.

There are three basic types of automotive heat exchangers. These are solid metal, liquid metal, and gas metal. Their primary function is to regulate and mix fluids in various sizes and temperatures for proper heating. Understanding the heat transfer mechanism of these types of heat exchanger will help you determine which one is best suited for your application.

Solid Metal Automotive Heat Exchangers:

The most common form of heat exchanger found in automobiles are the solid metal varieties. They are made up of one or more layers of aluminum or steel. They can come in different designs and are usually constructed using first law principles. For instance, if the top layer is composed of a thinner aluminum layer, the bottom will be cooler due to the direct contact between the two layers.

Liquid Metal Automotive Heat Exchangers:

These heat exchangers utilize a specially designed mixing chamber that has a lower concentration of heat than the mixing chamber that makes up the solid portion. This results in a design where the top most layers are cool while the bottom most layers are heated. To achieve this, they use a second law principle called the zeroth law. The zeroth law states that a material will continue to conduct heat in the same manner regardless of its temperature. As a result, they can be used in applications where high temperature operation is necessary such as an engine repair or oil change.

Gas Metal Automotive Heat Exchangers:

These heat exchangers employ a special design that causes the fluid to mix with the metal surface to bring about an increase in their temperature. While this creates a cooler surface, it also causes mixing between the fluid and the metal, thus creating cross flow heat exchangers. They are commonly used for fluid mixing in industrial and scientific equipment.

Automotive heat exchangers are generally classified into two main types depending on flow configurations: physical flow configurations and thermal flow configurations. A physical flow configuration heats one fluid directly. This type of heat exchanger may be made up of a single piece or could comprise several separate pieces. For example, a heat exchanger composed of a straight shaft and straight fitting sleeves is called a straight shaft heat exchanger. A thermal flow configuration heats one fluid indirectly by means of convection. In a typical thermal type heat exchanger, there is a physical barrier formed by a thin film of metal foil. The temperature difference between the top of this metal foil and the surrounding ambient air is the heat transfer coefficient. As the temperature difference rises, so does the heat transfer coefficient, until eventually the temperature of the entire system reaches equilibrium.

The mechanical design of a thermal conductor depends on its primary function. It must be designed so that it can only conduct heat that is parallel to its path. For instance, a metal plate having a high heat conductivity but a poor thermal conductivity may be used to heat only a small part of an aluminum container. However, when it is used to heat a container of sufficient size, a thermal conductor with excellent heat transfer efficiency will be required.

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