Search Results

Trapped air bubbles inside coolant systems have adverse effect on the cooling performance. Hence, it is imperative to ensure an effective filling and de-aeration of the coolant system in order to have less air left before the operation of the coolant system. In the present work, a coolant/air multiphase VOF method was utilized using the commercial CFD software SimericsMP+® to study the coolant filling and subsequent de-aeration process in a Battery Electric Vehicle (BEV) cooling system. First, validations of the numerical simulations against experiments were performed for a simplified coolant recirculation system. This system uses a tequila bottle for de-aeration and the validations were performed for different coolant flow rates to examine the de-aeration efficiency. A similar trend of de-aeration was captured between simulation and experimental measurement.

Metal foam with their high porosity and heat storage capacity can be combined with phase change materials to be a powerful heat storage device. Numerical simulations of metal foam behavior can be challenging due to their complex geometric patterns necessitating high mesh requirements. Furthermore, simulations of the inner workings of a metal foam heat exchanger comprising of a large number of individual metal foam canisters can be impossible. The objective of the current work is to develop a computational model using a proprietary CFD tool Simerics-MP/Simerics-MP+® to simulate the workings of a metal foam heat exchanger with phase change element. A heat transfer coefficient capturing this heat transfer between wax and metal is used to formulate the “simplified” mixture model. The versatility of the proposed model is in the universality of its application to any shape or structure of metal foam. The computational model developed is tested to replicate the results of the 3D simulation.

In an automotive cooling circuit, the wax melting process determines the net and time history of the energy transfer between the engine and its environment. A numerical process that gives insight into the mixing process outside the wax chamber, the wax melting process inside the wax chamber, and the effect on the poppet valve displacement will be advantageous to both the engine and automotive system design. A fully three dimensional, transient, system level simulation of an inlet controlled thermostat inside an automotive cooling circuit is undertaken in this paper. A proprietary CFD algorithm, Simerics-Sys®/PumpLinx®, is used to solve this complex problem. A two-phase model is developed in PumpLinx® to simulate the wax melting process. The hysteresis effect of the wax melting process is also considered in the simulation.