Development of a High-Efficiency, Compact Vehicular Radiator
Funded by US Army TARDEC
Project Summary
One critical challenge for current military vehicles is the development of efficient and compact thermal management systems that meet increasingly demanding heat dissipation requirements. This Army SBIR project is to develop a high-efficient, compact vehicular radiator to provide adequate cooling for military vehicle engines particularly in harsh environments. The successful development of the proposed vehicular radiator will enable the design of military ground vehicles in order to provide reliable mobility and other performance requirements under various vehicle operating conditions.
Aegis Technology Inc. has well demonstrated the technical feasibility of the proposed thermal management system in Phase I. In this Phase II project, we have focused on the following work: (1) Analysis of Army vehicle thermal management requirements, and identification of the development direction for Phase II; (2) Modeling and simulation, which included evaluating thermal performance of various designs, identification of key technical parameters, and evaluating the selection of materials; (3) Design, prototyping, and testing of small-scale radiator units to establish the processing procedures and resulting optimization of the design parameters; and (4) Design, prototyping, and testing of full-scale radiator units based on modeling and the results of testing with small-scale prototypes. The ultimate goal is to demonstrate and integrate the optimized radiator into Army vehicle thermal management systems. Design work started with analysis of the baseline radiator to establish initial design parameters such as fin and tube dimensions. Then evaluation and optimization were performed using small-scale designs that are more ecomical and easier for prototyping and testing. For modeling and simulation, both finite element analysis (FEA) and analytical thermal computations were conducted and compared. It was indicated that FEA results were very close to those from analytical thermal analysis. Therefore, analytical thermal analysis was used for the evaluation of various designs and for design optimization. Prototyping was conducted based on modeling and simulation results. Small-scale prototyping was conducted first and tested. Based on the testing results on small-scale prototypes, prototyping of full-scale radiators was performed.
During this Phase II development, a total of seven full-scale radiator prototypes have been fabricated using optimized designs and simulation results. These prototypes were tested at the U.S. Army Tank Automotive Research, Development and Engineering Center (TARDEC). Testing results showed that prototypes based on bar and plate design had promising heat rejection value, with one bar and plate radiator having heat rejection that exceeds the program objective by 2%. Furthermore, vehicle weight is expected to be reduced substantially by using the Aegis bar and plate radiator, leading to further performance enhancement. Currently, further optimization on bar and plate radiator is ongoing.