Eco-Efficient Vehicle Cooling Modules with Integrated Diffusers—Thermal, Energy, and Environmental Analyses

Jalal Faraj, Khaled Chahine, Mostafa Mortada, Thierry Lemenand, Haitham S. Ramadan () and Mahmoud Khaled
Additional contact information
Jalal Faraj: Energy and Thermofluid Group, The International University of Beirut BIU, Beirut 146404, Lebanon
Khaled Chahine: College of Engineering and Technology, American University of the Middle East, Kuwait
Mostafa Mortada: Energy and Thermo-Fluid Group, Lebanese International University LIU, Bekaa 1803, Lebanon
Thierry Lemenand: LARIS EA 7315, Polytech Angers, University of Angers, 49000 Angers, France
Haitham S. Ramadan: ISTHY, l’Institut International sur le Stockage de l’Hydrogène, 90400 Meroux-Moval, France
Mahmoud Khaled: Energy and Thermofluid Group, The International University of Beirut BIU, Beirut 146404, Lebanon

Energies, 2022, vol. 15, issue 21, 1-19

Abstract: The automotive domain is a very good candidate for energy management, particularly due to the huge amounts of energy lost by heat through exhaust and water-cooling systems. This makes the optimization of vehicle cooling modules directly related to energy consumption and carbon dioxide emission. In this context, contemporary designs that employ diffusers between the forward-facing of an automobile and its heat exchanger subjected to airflow are presented in this work. The ultimate aim is to reduce the fuel consumption and carbon dioxide emissions of vehicles. Based on the aforementioned design, the intensity of the air velocity would be decreased but distributed over a larger exchanger surface. Consequently, the velocity non-uniformity of the airflow upstream would decrease and therefore, the thermal performance would increase. The above-mentioned conclusion is a result of parametric numerical analysis and its associated numerical results that disclosed the enhancement of water-air heat exchanger thermal performance. To perform a parametric numerical analysis of the heat exchanger thermal performance for the new suggested configurations, a computational code was developed and validated to estimate the thermal performance for a known set of parameters. It was shown that for an automobile, with engine power ranging from 100–200 kW that is utilized for three hours a day and equipped with a diffuser, reduction of up to 2.91 kg (3.89 L) of gasoline consumption and 9.51 kg of CO 2 emission can be achieved per day. The originality of the present work resides in the use of diffusers in cooling modules of vehicles, the thermal modeling of heat exchanger’s thermal performance along with its associated code, and the parametric analysis performed to prove the potential enhancement related to the use of diffusers in the cooling modules.

Keywords: diffuser; energy consumption; cooling module; heat exchanger; thermal performance; air velocity uniformity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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